The latest version of the Xbox controller—the one included with the Xbox One South and the upcoming One X—includes Bluetooth! Microsoft finally included Bluetooth along with the older proprietary Xbox wireless connectedness, then Windows users tin hook information technology up without an actress dongle. Here's how to connect it to your Bluetooth-equipped laptop or desktop.

What You lot'll Need

First of all, you demand to see if your Xbox I controller is the updated kind or the older one that needs a dongle. There's an easy fashion to tell: the newer design has its cardinal "Xbox button" molded into the same plastic piece as the face buttons (similar A, B, X, and Y). The older blueprint molds that button into the plastic on the summit of the controller, the same part that has the shoulder buttons and triggers. To put it just, the new version has Bluetooth, the old version doesn't.

You'll also need a PC running Windows x, with at least the Ceremony Update (August, 2016). And of course, you'll also demand Bluetooth. If you've bought a laptop in the final five years or so it's almost certainly capable, but many desktops (if they don't include a Wi-Fi card) don't have it installed by default. In that case, you'll need a USB Bluetooth dongle. And sure, it'south still a dongle, but at to the lowest degree information technology'south useful for more than just an Xbox controller.

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Connect the Controller

Connecting the controller to Bluetooth is fairly simple. We're using a Windows desktop considering it'southward one of the only things that the controller is explicitly designed to piece of work with. You can connect it to other things, like an Android phone, but the proprietary layout means it probably won't piece of work for any actual gaming.

To begin, make sure at that place's nothing else turned on in the room that might interfere with the connection—similar an Xbox One console or an Xbox Windows adapter dongle. Plough the controller on by pressing the centre Xbox button, and then press and hold the wireless connection button on the top of the controller, to the left of the charging port. The light in the Xbox button should begin flashing quickly.

On your calculator, open up the "Bluetooth and other devices" page from the main Settings menu, or just click the Start button and type "Bluetooth" to find the link quickly.  Click "Add Bluetooth or other device," then click "Bluetooth" over again.

Select your controller from the list, and and so click information technology. It should connect automatically. Now you lot're ready to outset playing any game uniform with the standard Xbox controller input.