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DS4Windows and HIDGuardian Install and Setup Guide
This document will likely be deleted soon. HidGuardian has been officially replaced with the HidHide filter driver. DS4Windows will likely use HidHide in some capacity in the future.
The scope of this document covers installation and setup of the core packages and scripts. It does not cover configuration of DS4Windows (profiles, mappings, and options).
This installation uses the following software packages:
- DS4Windows
- HIDGuardian (EDITED: 2021-04-22. HidGuardian is an obsolete tool. It has been replaced by HidHide tool. https://github.com/ViGEm/HidHide/releases)
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Download the latest DS4Windows package. The latest release list can be found here:
https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/releases -
Open the DS4Windows archive file (.7z or .zip). 7-Zip use is highly recommended over using File Explorer.
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Extract the contents of the DS4Windows archive file to a local folder of your choosing (such as Downloads). Please DO NOT extract the contents to a folder under Program Files.
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If you're planning on using HIDGuardian to guarantee exclusive access to the game controller, proceed with the next steps. Otherwise, proceed to the steps under Setting up DS4Windows.
(EDITED: 2021-04-22. HidGuardian is an obsolete tool. It is nowadays replaced by HidHide tool which does the same, but is more reliable and easier tool to hide physical gamepads. This documentation haven't been updated yet, but please follow this instructions to uninstall existing HidGuardian driver and install HidHide. Whenever documentation pages here talk about HidGuardian reader should make a mental correction to HidHide name until documentation is properly updated. https://vigem.org/projects/HidHide/Simple-Setup-Guide/)
TLDR version. The HidGuardian filter driver is the most sure way of getting DS4Windows exclusive access to the DS4 controller. A test installer for HidGuardian version 1.14.3.0 has been made to help make installing and getting a base configuration easier to set up. You can download the installer program at the following URL. Updated 2021/02/04
HidGuardianInstaller_20191218.7z HidGuardian is an obsolete tool. It has been replaced by HidHide tool. See the "Simple-Setup-Guide" HidHide link above.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PNL3uv_4KektN00S9fm61djypSQ-3HED/view?usp=sharing
After installing HidGuardian driver (manually or via the above linked automatic installer) then the following little helper app may be useful to fine tune HidGuardian configuration (which DS4 gamepad hardware IDs you want to hide or not to hide).
https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/issues/1219
Manual instructions for installing and configuring HidGuardian can be found later in the section Installing HIDGuardian and later. If you wish to configure HidGuardian manually, read on. If you used the "Test Installer" linked above to install HidGuardian then you can stop reading unless you are interested to know what happens under the hood.
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Open DS4Windows executable.
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Under the Settings tab, click 'Controller/Driver Setup'.
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Follow the instructions in the newly-opened window, performing step 1 (required), and step 2 (if running Windows 7 or below), and then perform the Bluetooth pairing if using wireless controllers.
If you used the above linked Test Installer to install HidGuardian driver then you can stop reading unless you wanna know what happens under the hood. The only recommended method is to use the Test Installer.
Manual directions for Registry edits have been removed. Please utilize HidNinja application bundled with DS4Windows to configure HidGuardian and block devices from other applications.
Performing a major Windows update clears the HIDGuardian filter driver. This is an issue with how the filter driver is connected to Windows and there isn't much to do about it. You will have to re-install HidGuardian in order to have device blocking working again; if using the Test Installer, you might have to perform a full uninstall first to remove the old driver file in the Driver Store. This includes updating from Windows 2017 Fall Creator's Update to Windows 2018 Spring Creator's Update (and any future updates), or if you subscribe to the Windows Insider Preview and receive preview updates.
HidGuardian driver removed until it was properly uninstalled. Now keyboard and mouse doesn't work. What to do?
Something like this could theoretically happen if HidGuardian device driver files are deleted before the driver registration is removed from WinOS registry. The worst case scenario is that usb keyboard and mouse doesn't work anymore (PS/2 kbd and mouse would work). Please see the following post for more info how to solve this issue via Windows safe boot. https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows/issues/1525#issuecomment-706096639
Quick-Start Guide Author: Tristan Young
Last updated: April 15 2018
The author of this help file can be reached through his discord server. https://discord.gg/YuWuK
Please keep all Dualshock 4, DS4Windows and HIDGuardian related discussions to the appropriate dualshock-4 group. This is not a bug tracker for the above packages. Thank you.