Connect Xbox con­troller to PC: Gaming ready in just a few steps

The Xinput interface makes con­nect­ing Xbox con­trollers to the Windows PC easy as pie. The con­fig­u­ra­tion of the buttons and the general in­ter­ac­tion between a PC game and the Microsoft con­trollers is already optimally co­or­di­nat­ed through their shared ecosystem. We’ll show you which different con­nec­tion types you can use to quickly use con­trollers like the Xbox One con­troller on the PC.

The latest Xbox gen­er­a­tion from Microsoft is called Xbox Series X and is the fastest and most powerful Xbox of all times. The cor­re­spond­ing Xbox Wireless Con­troller is also ideally suited for gaming with a con­troller on the PC. The con­troller can be connected to a PC in three different ways, which we will introduce below. The older models from Xbox One and Xbox 360 can also be connected to a PC in a simple way. The only drawback with the older con­trollers is that the Xbox 360 con­troller cannot be connected to the PC via Bluetooth, since it does not use this trans­mis­sion method.

The easiest way to connect an Xbox con­troller to the PC is with the included USB cable.

• The con­nec­tion between Xbox con­troller and PC works exactly like the con­nec­tion of the con­troller with the Xbox.
• Simply plug the USB cable into the socket on the con­troller and connect it to a suitable USB port on the computer.
• Depending on the Windows operating system, the computer will then au­to­mat­i­cal­ly perform the pairing with the newly connected hardware.
• For Windows 8.1 and older, the drivers required for the con­nec­tion are au­to­mat­i­cal­ly down­loaded and installed. After that, the con­nec­tion process is carried out as with the newer Windows versions.

Other con­trollers can also be connected quickly and easily in this simple way. For example, you can also use a PS5 con­troller on PC.

Besides the con­nec­tion via USB cable, Windows offers the pos­si­bil­i­ty to connect an Xbox con­troller via Xbox Wireless. You need a separate Xbox wireless adapter for this. In some computers, the adapter is already installed.

• To start the con­nec­tion process, the wireless adapter must be turned on.
• Next, turn on the Xbox con­troller by pressing the Xbox button.
• To connect, you need to start searching for com­pat­i­ble con­trollers on the Xbox wireless adapter. This is triggered by pressing the pairing button on the wireless adapter.
• At the same time, you put the Xbox con­troller into pairing mode. Just like with the adapter, this is done by pressing the pairing button on the con­troller.
• When the con­nec­tion between the con­troller and PC has been suc­cess­ful­ly es­tab­lished, the Xbox button on the con­troller lights up con­tin­u­ous­ly.

• In the next step, select the con­troller you want to connect, for example, an Xbox 360 con­troller.
• Once the con­nec­tion is suc­cess­ful­ly es­tab­lished, the Xbox button will light up con­tin­u­ous­ly.

Besides these two options, an Xbox con­troller can also be connected to a computer via Bluetooth. The con­troller must support Bluetooth for this. You can find out to what extent a con­troller is Bluetooth-enabled in its de­scrip­tion. Xbox 360 con­trollers are not Bluetooth-enabled, but the newer con­trollers of the Xbox One and Xbox Series X can be paired with the PC via Bluetooth.

Another feature that indicates Bluetooth ca­pa­bil­i­ty is the texture of the con­troller’s surface. On con­trollers that are Bluetooth com­pat­i­ble, the plastic around the Xbox button is part of the con­troller’s surface.

Here’s how to pair an Xbox con­troller with PC via Bluetooth:

• First, enable Bluetooth on the computer under “Settings” and “Devices”.

• Your PC will then search for a com­pat­i­ble con­troller, and once found, you confirm the pairing yourself. The con­troller is ready for use from this point on.

With the presented con­nec­tion options, you can also play games with a con­troller that you have purchased via software platforms like Steam or the Epic Games Store, for example. Microsoft offers the pos­si­bil­i­ty to access an extensive game library on the computer and to play the games with a con­troller with the xCloud or Xbox Cloud Gaming.