Most PC gamers would rather die than let you take away their mouse and keyboard. But for third-person action games, racing, or emulated retro games, gamepads may still be worth using. If your controller isn’t quite working properly, you can calibrate it in Windows 10 to make sure that every movement translates to your game with 100% accuracy.
Why Would I Need to Do This?
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Although many gamepads, like the Xbox One or Xbox 360 controllers, are usually calibrated for gaming on a PC right out of the box, others may need you to calibrate them before the system recognizes all their movements with complete accuracy. For example, if you use a Nintendo 64 controller with a USB adapter, it will almost certainly need to be calibrated before you can use it.
In other cases, you may just have an old controller that needs a little help. For example, maybe you have a button that’s sticking and you aren’t sure just how much the computer is able to read from it on each press. Or perhaps your gamepad has a worn down thumbstick that doesn’t seem like it’s tilting as far as it could. The calibration tool can help you dial in your controller so it’s as accurate as it can be.
We’ll be using an Xbox 360 controller for this guide, since that’s what we have, but it should work pretty much the same for any gamepad you plug in.
Open the Calibration Tool
To find the Calibration Tool, begin by going down to your Start Menu, and selecting “Settings”.
Once in Settings, click on the tab for “Devices”:
After the next window, scroll down to the link that reads “Devices and Printers” inside the “Printers and Scanners” tab, and click on it.
(You can also get here by going into Control Panel > Devices and Printers in all versions of Windows).
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From here, the controller should pop up as long as it’s already connected. If not, make sure you have all the latest drivers installed for the controller of your choosing.
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Find the controller, and right click it to bring up the following drop-down menu. From here, click on the option for “Game controller settings”.
After you click this, the following window should automatically pop up. From there, click on the “Properties” button.
The window that follows will contain two options: “Settings” and “Test”. To start, choose the Settings tab, and then click the button in this window that reads “Calibrate”.
From here, the Calibration Wizard will automatically begin taking you through the process to get your controller set up properly. (This window is also where you’ll find the button to “Reset to Default”, in case you want the tool to automatically reset any changes that were made during a previous calibration run.)
Calibrate Your Controller
Again, we’re using the Xbox 360 controller here, so you may see slightly different windows depending on your controller, but most of it should be very similar. Click Next to start the calibration.
The calibration tool will start off with the “D-Pad” calibration, which on the Xbox 360 controller is actually the left thumbstick. At first, it will ask you to leave the thumbstick alone so it can find the center point.
Let go of the thumbstick and click “Next”, at which point you’ll be taken to the next screen.
Although it’s not necessary, we recommend selecting the “Display Raw Data” box, which will show you exactly where the resting point for the thumbstick is with quantifiable numbers. This data is valuable because it will tell you if either of your thumbsticks are starting to wear down due to overuse, and can help you to diagnose any reasons why your in-game accuracy might be slipping.
From here, swing the left thumbstick all the way around its full range of motion a few times. You should see the small cross hit all four corners in the box above, or at least touch all four sides of the box.
Next, you’ll run through the same set of tools for any “axes” on your controller. These could be pressure-sensitive buttons like the Xbox’s left and right triggers, thumbsticks, or they might just be regular buttons on some gamepads.
In our case, the Xbox 360 triggers are measured along the Z-axis, and should register anywhere from 100% (resting) to 200% (pulled down completely). The X-axis calibrates the Xbox’s right thumbstick for horizontal movement, so for that, you just need to pull the thumbstick all the way to the left and the right, and see if the full range of motion is being appropriately registered.
The same goes for the Y-axis (vertical movement). Swing it up and down, and as long as you see the numbers “0%”, and “100% at the extremes of both the top and the bottom of the thumbstick’s range of motion (as well as resting in the middle at 50%), your controller is properly calibrated. As you can see in the example above, the X-axis of my right thumbstick actually rests around 52%, the product of old age and a lot of intense rounds of Halo Online.
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Unfortunately, while the software side of calibration does help you to find out how well your controller is responding to your movements–and even course correct for a faulty thumbstick to an extent–the only hardware fix when it starts to get worn down like this is to head down to the store and pick up a new controller altogether. Or, if you’re feeling handy, you can buy parts like thumbsticks online and replace them yourself.
Once you’ve run through all four calibrations, you can click “Finish” to move on to the testing portion of the process.
Test the Calibration
Once the calibration process is finished, it’s time to test out the results. In the same window you started from (with the “Settings” and “Test” tabs), now you’re going to want to click on the “Test” tab.
From here, any movements or button presses you make will automatically appear on-screen. This is a good way to determine exactly how quickly the buttons are registering–if they’re registering at all–as well as making note of how close (or far away) the thumbstick is resting from an even 50% after you move it around a bit.
Once you’ve finished your tests, make sure to hit Apply before you close out the window, and you’re done!
Although most modern controllers will come calibrated out of the box to work flawlessly with Windows, it never hurts to go in and re-calibrate once every few months just to be sure you’re not missing any headshots due to a controller that’s out of whack.
Image Credits: Pexels
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Halo Controller Driver To Windows 10 Download
The best way to fix your PC to run at peak performance is to update your drivers. If your system is slow, unresponsive or crashes often, the problem may be with your drivers. Sometimes, after upgrading to a newer operating system such as Windows 10, problems can occur because your current driver may only work with an older version of Windows. To download and update your drivers, follow the instructions below.
Find Microsoft Device Drivers by Model Name or Number
Find Microsoft Device Drivers by Category
How to Update Device Drivers Quickly & Easily
Tech Tip: Updating drivers manually requires some computer skills and patience. A faster and easier option is to use the Driver Update Utility for Microsoft to scan your system for free. The utility tells you which specific drivers are out-of-date for all of your devices.
Step 1 - Download Your Driver
To get the latest driver, including Windows 10 drivers, you can choose from a list of most popular Microsoft downloads. Click the download button next to the matching model name. After you complete your download, move on to Step 2.
If your driver is not listed and you know the model name or number of your Microsoft device, you can use it to search our driver archive for your Microsoft device model. Simply type the model name and/or number into the search box and click the Search button. You may see different versions in the results. Choose the best match for your PC and operating system.
If you don’t know the model name or number, you can start to narrow your search down by choosing which category of Microsoft device you have (such as Printer, Scanner, Video, Network, etc.). Start by selecting the correct category from our list of Microsoft Device Drivers by Category.
Need more help finding the right driver? You can request a driver and we will find it for you. We employ a team from around the world. They add hundreds of new drivers to our site every day.
Tech Tip: If you are having trouble deciding which is the right driver, try the Driver Update Utility for Microsoft. It is a software utility that will find the right driver for you - automatically.
Microsoft updates their drivers regularly. To get the latest Windows 10 driver, you may need to go to Microsoft website to find the driver for to your specific Windows version and device model.
Step 2 - Install Your Driver
After you download your new driver, then you have to install it. To install a driver in Windows, you will need to use a built-in utility called Device Manager. It allows you to see all of the devices recognized by your system, and the drivers associated with them.
How to Open Device Manager
In Windows 8.1 & Windows 10, right-click the Start menu and select Device Manager
In Windows 8, swipe up from the bottom, or right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose 'All Apps' -> swipe or scroll right and choose 'Control Panel' (under Windows System section) -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager
In Windows 7, click Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager
In Windows Vista, click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Device Manager
In Windows XP, click Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager button
How to Install drivers using Device Manager
Locate the device and model that is having the issue and double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
Select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button and follow the instructions.
In most cases, you will need to reboot your computer in order for the driver update to take effect.
Tech Tip: Driver downloads and updates come in a variety of file formats with different file extensions. For example, you may have downloaded an EXE, INF, ZIP, or SYS file. Each file type has a slighty different installation procedure to follow.
If you are having trouble installing your driver, you should use the Driver Update Utility for Microsoft. It is a software utility that automatically finds, downloads and installs the right driver for your system. You can even backup your drivers before making any changes, and revert back in case there were any problems.
Try it now to safely update all of your drivers in just a few clicks. Once you download and run the utiliy, it will scan for out-of-date or missing drivers:
When the scan is complete, the driver update utility will display a results page showing which drivers are missing or out-of-date. You can update individual drivers, or all of the necessary drivers with one click.
For more help, visit our Driver Support Page for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.