DS4Windows now supports Sony's official Bluetooth adapter (updated)

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You can now use the Dualshock 4's headphone jack and touchpad with DS4Windows.

Updated 9/22/2016: The main build of DS4Windows has now been updated with support for the Sony Bluetooth adapter and Windows 10 anniversary. Grab version 1.4.5 here. Original story continues below.

The DualShock 4 is still our favorite controller for PC gaming, but it does have one drawback: pairing it via Bluetooth or a cable with the unofficial software DS4Windows can sometimes be finicky. It’s not quite as plug and play as a wired Xbox controller or a wireless Xbox controller with Microsoft’s official Windows dongle. Good news: Sony finally released its own USB wireless adapter, unlocking full use of the DualShock 4’s features on PC, including the touchpad and headphone jack! Bad news: There are still no Xinput drivers, which is what most PC games use for controller support. For now, the adapter is only officially meant to work with Sony’s PS Now and Remote Play. Good news, again: someone’s already corrected that limitation.

Redditor boganhobo got the adapter as soon as it launched, and quickly found a way to enable support for it in the DS4Windows tool. DS4Windows tricks your PC into seeing the DualShock as an Xbox controller, which allows it to work in pretty much any game with controller support. Now you can have the best of both worlds: the same old DS4Windows support, but with the added benefits of the Sony adapter’s strong Bluetooth range and full use of the headphone jack and touchpad. 

Because DS4Windows is an open source project, boganhobo created a project fork to support Sony’s adapter. You can grab a built executable in the Reddit thread. This fix hasn’t been rolled into the main release of DS4Windows, and DS4Windows still has a problem with the Windows 10 anniversary update, which another redditor is working on fixing. But if you’re not on the anniversary update, boganhobo’s fork is the best way to use Sony’s Dualshock adapter on PC.

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Wes Fenlon
Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).

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