Vista - Installing Xbox 360 Wired Controller

Here's a mini tutorial for installing the Xbox 360 wired controller if you're having a driver problem.

I was having a small driver problem when connecting the Xbox 360 wired controller to my Vista x64 Home Premium machine. There were two instances of the controller in the Device Manager:
1. Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
2. Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)

I downloaded the drivers for the controller from the MS site: Download Gaming Software

Once I installed the MS drivers, the device "Xbox 360 Controller for Windows" was successfully installed, but the other device "Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)" would not install the necessary driver. Even Windows Update couldn't find the appropriate drivers for it.

So if you are having this same problem, follow these steps:
1. First download and install the MS drivers from the link above. Once installed, connect your Xbox 360 controller to your PC and it will install the driver for "Xbox 360 Controller for Windows" but it will not find the driver for "Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)". It will say that it failed to install the driver for that device, but that's okay because we are going to fix that now.
2. Open Device Manager (Start Orb -> right click "Computer" and select Properties -> click Device Manager on top left)
3. "Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)" should be under "Other devices". Double click on it then click on the Driver tab.
4. Click on "Update Driver".
5. Click "Browse my computer for driver software".
6. Click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
7. Scroll down to "Human Interface Devices". Select it and click Next.
8. Leave the Manufacturer as "(Standard System Devices)" and in the Model pane, select "USB Human Interface Device" and click Next.

Windows has successfully updated your driver software

Congrats! Now you should be able to find your Xbox 360 controller in "Game Controllers" in your Control Panel.

Note:: The device that was labeled "Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)" is under "Human Interface Devices" in your Device Manager with the name of "USB Human Interface Device". If you need to find it, double click on the "USB Human Interface Device"(s) you may have and the Location: entry will tell you which one the controller is.

I have made this as simple as possible so that even the most basic computer user could follow my steps to a successful install. Hopefully this will help you as it did me.

Hi Spd2last,

Good Tutorial...Have you considered adding it to the collection?
Tutorials - Vista Forums

Thanks, and hey you can add it right in if you want to. I didn't really think it was much of a tutorial, but more of a little helpful guideline.

I posted about this problem a week ago and no one replied, and I didn't find this post initially in a search.

I tried everything and finally just reinstalled Vista x64 which solved the problem, though your solution is much less extreme!

I thought I was the only person in the world to have this exact problem so it's nice to see that I'm not

I was thinking the same. After many searches, I couldn't find somebody with the same problem. Then I finally found somewhere a random screenshot where the guy was showing something else, and that's where i saw the solution.
That's also why I made this post here. These forums are usually one of the first search results in Google, so if anybody has the same problem somewhere, they'll hopefully be able to find this page and work it out.

Hi, I'm having a problem whilst following your guide, I was wondering if you could help.

OK, so I get to the 8th part, but in my list there is no "(Standard System Devices)" and so I cannot find USB Human Interface Device.
Do you have any ideas on what I can do to get this working?

Many thanks

I'm sorry I took long to answer, but I never noticed anybody had posted something new in here.
The only reasons I could think of that option not being there is because either you mistakenly selected something wrong on the way to step 8, or your computer doesn't have the chipset drivers installed.

Could you please tell me your system specs?