DS4Windows not working, opening or saving my settings
If your DS4Windows opens and starts normally, but not detecting controllers or fails for another reason then this page is not for you. Go to our troubleshooting section and locate the current issue you are experiencing.
Verify your DS4 Windows
Make sure all prerequisites are installed
Without the required drivers, DS4windows will not work. Make sure you have the following installed:
- Windows 10 / 11
- Microsoft .NET 6.0.6 Runtime Desktop (Some users has reported that just installing the .NET runtime doesn’t work. If that is the case, you should install .net SDK version)
- Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable. x64 for most people or x86 for those on 32 bits systems
- ViGEmBus driver (DS4Windows should offer to install it when it’s not detected)
- The ViGEm driver requires Visual-C++ 2017 runtime libraries (most users need the x64 version)
- Microsoft 360 Driver (link inside DS4Windows, already installed by Windows if you’ve used a 360 controller before)
- Already installed by default on Windows 10 and 11
DS4Windows' Log and Windows' Event Viewer
DS4Windows’ Log can give important warnings when issues occur. It may be found in 2 different places and, if it exists on both, the most recent one should be inspected:
- In DS4Windows main folder
- In DS4Windows folder inside
%appdata%
(Press Win+R, type%appdata%
, hit OK then check if the DS4Windows folder exists and the presence of the Log file)
Confirm DS4Windows folder is not write-protected
DS4Windows may be inside a folder that is write-protected, therefore requiring it to be executed with higher privileges to be able to save and edit data. Such folders can be the “Windows” folder, “Program Files” and sometimes even the user Desktop (unlikely, but possible).
It’s recommended to have DS4Windows inside a folder that is known to not require higher-privileges to prevent this issue, like the user’s “Documents” or “Downloads” folder.
Check if User Data is not corruted
The easy way to check this is making sure DS4Windows is not running and then backing up and erasing all of its User Data. If erasing the User Data fix the issue but the user wishes to keep some of its old data, it’s possible to restore each User Data related file and folder individually until the corrupted file is found, then removing it only.
Issues that may prevent DS4Windows from running or starting
"ViGEmBus is not installed" log message when attempting to start DS4Windows
Either ViGEmBus is not installed or DS4Windows is failing to detect it. The ViGEmBus’s guides on how to install, verify if its working correctly, uninstall or perform a full clean of everything vigem related can be found on ViGEmBus’ How to Install/Remove page.
“Attempting to start the service winmgmt failed” or “Windows Management Interface not found” messages
If these messages appear on DS4Windows’ Log or in Windows’ Event View then try to do the “repair Windows installation” fix using a Microsoft Windows installation media. There has been reports that this fixed a problem of DS4Windows app silently doing nothing when launched -issue. Or run WinOS “WMI repository repair” commands. Repair WinOS WMI repository
User is running MSI Afterburner and / or MSI RTSS RivaTuner
Some users have reported that certain versions of MSI Afterburner and MSI RTSS RivaTuner apps are not compatible with WPF version of DS4Windows (every version since v2.0).
RTSS prevents DS4Windows app to startup. Try adding DS4Windows.exe file to RTSS application list and set app option as “Application Detection Level=NONE” in RTSS (search issue tickets with these keywords for more information on DS4Windows’ Issue Tracker).
User has the legacy ScpVBus driver installed
The Scp Virtual Bus Driver
(ScpVBus) is a legacy driver that was used to spawn virtual Xbox controllers. It has been succeeded by the ViGEmBus.
Though DS4Windows should just ignore the ScpVBus, there is a small chance that having it installed along-side the ViGEmBus can lead to issues.
To properly uninstall and remove remaining traces of it from the system, follow the instructions in the Manual removal of ScpToolkit residue page starting from the “Remove Scp Virtual Bus Driver” section.
Windows is not updated
When everything else fails, update Windows.