If you’re on the latest Windows 11 Insider build you might have to uninstall your Xbox controller driver to get it to play nicely

2025-07-15 07:00:00
www.pcgamer.com

Xbox controllers are still some of the most-used gamepads for PC gaming, and for good reason. They’re affordable and the quality is pretty great for the price. So this one will likely apply to more than a fair few of you: Microsoft has shared that some people on the latest Windows 11 Insider build “are experiencing an issue where using their Xbox Controller via Bluetooth is causing their PC to bugcheck.”

Thankfully, there’s a fix. Microsoft explains: “Open Device Manager by searching for it via the search box on your taskbar. Once Device Manager is open, click on ‘View’ and then ‘Devices by Driver’. Find the driver named ‘oemXXX.inf (XboxGameControllerDriver.inf)’ where the ‘XXX’ will be a specific number on your PC. Right-click on that driver and click ‘Uninstall’.”

Presumably, this might also be an issue for some third-party gamepads that get picked up as Xbox controllers. So, it might be worth trying this driver uninstall fix even if your non-Xbox controller is causing problems via Bluetooth since the latest update.

This seems like a problem restricted to the latest Insider build on the dev channel, though—Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5702 (KB5062653)—so if you’re just running on the stable Windows 11 update channel, you should be fine.

The Xbox Wireless Controller in white sat on a desk.

(Image credit: Future)

There’s a good reason why some of you might be using Insider builds, though, as these get bleeding-edge updates and new features from Microsoft as soon as they’re available. An even more bleeding-edge one (on the Canary channel), for instance, is now rolling out taskbar scaling that should allow you to squeeze in loads of taskbar icons. For those ‘I do use all 30 of these apps simultaneously all the time’ people, I suppose (sure you do, buddy).

Returning to the dev build in question here, though, you’re getting some new Copilot+ gubbins (yawn), some UX changes, and a bunch of other fixes, including improvements to zip extraction speed, which is nice to see.

So, if you fancy any of those changes and you have an Xbox controller, prepare to get menu diving.

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