Controller Mappings

Controller Mappings

Hold View/Back to turn the controller into a pointer and keyboard. Every button below can be remapped, with a separate action for a short press and a long press.

If you would rather not hold View/Back, turn on persistent mouse mode in Settings.

Which controllers work

SteamShell reads controllers three ways, and picks automatically (Backend=auto):

Backend	Used for
RawInput	Reads the pad directly. The only one that works inside Xbox FSE.
XInput	Xbox-class controllers on the desktop. The fallback.
GameInput	XFE companion only, tried between the two.

Xbox-class pads work out of the box. For anything else, RawInput has a built-in layout for the ROG Ally's controller and can be taught any other — see Controller Learner.

If Windows shows your pad as an Xbox controller under "Game Controllers", it is XInput and will work on the desktop regardless.

XInput reads zeros inside Xbox FSE. That is why RawInput exists and why the learner matters if you use the companion.

Fixed behaviour

These are not remappable:

Input	Does
Right stick	Mouse pointer (RT = faster)
Left stick	Scroll wheel
D-pad	Arrow keys
L3 + R3 held	Quick Menu

Defaults

While holding View/Back:

Button	Short press	Long press
A	Enter	—
B	Esc	Alt+F4
X	Touch keyboard	On-screen keyboard
Y	Win+G (Game Bar)	—
LB	Ctrl+Alt+Tab	Task Manager
RB	Left click	—
LT	Ctrl+Shift+O	Ctrl+Shift+F
RT	Right click	—
Start	Windows Start menu	File Explorer
L3	—	—
R3	—	—

Changing them

Settings → Controller Mapping. Each button takes either:

• a built-in action — LeftClick, RightClick, Enter, Esc, AltF4, TabTip, OSK, WinG, TaskManager, StartMenu, Explorer, QuickMenu, ControlPanel, None
• a recorded shortcut — press the chord and it captures it

Saved to [ControllerMap] in your settings file as Button.Short / Button.Long.

While recording, Windows sees the keys too. Recording Ctrl+Alt+Tab will pop the task switcher. The capture is still correct.

Cursor speed

Settings → Controller & Cursor → Controller mouse speed, a slider measured in pixels per second at full stick deflection. Default 3200.

In 2.0.0 this changed unit — it used to be pixels per poll tick, which tied cursor speed to how often a timer happened to fire and made the pointer visibly step along its path. Existing settings are converted automatically, so the cursor moves at the speed you were already used to.

The Quick Menu can adjust it too, in steps of 200 px/s.

The companion speaks differently

XFE labels some actions in Xbox FSE's vocabulary — "Game Bar" for Win+G, "Back / Escape" for Esc — and offers TaskView, WindowsDesktop and Settings actions the shell does not. The shell offers ControlPanel instead. The underlying resolution is shared; only the labels differ.