HidHide—A Gaming Input Peripheral Device Firewall

HidHide
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  • Create Date December 11, 2022
  • Last Updated March 15, 2023

HidHide—A Gaming Input Peripheral Device Firewall

DS4Windows allows you to remap a joystick or gamepad device into an emulated virtual controller that can be used in games. 

However, that is only possible if your PC doesn’t detect the real controller. Otherwise, you will get a double input issue. 

That’s where HidHide comes in. It’s an advanced filter driver that can hide the real controllers like gamepads and joysticks so your Windows and other program do not detect these devices. 

Hence, you can create emulated virtual controllers, remap them with real controllers and use them on specific applications. 

Before-And-After-HidHide

Why Do You Need HidHide?

If the game you are playing doesn’t detect your real controller, then you have no issue. You can play the game with emulated remapped virtual controller and there will be no issue. 

But that is not the case most of the time. Usually, your game detects the generic gamepad controller. So, you cannot remap it into a desired XInput device or a Dual Shock 4 controller because you won’t get any response from commands. 

That’s where HidHide comes in. Instead of allowing your game to detect both controllers, HidHide will hide the generic gamepad controller and allow you to use the virtual controller. 

The games will only detect the virtual controller whether it’s an Xbox 360 or DS4 controller, and the real controller will be 100% hidden. 

So, there will be no double input issue. HidHide will allow the remapping tool, in this case, DS4Windows, to see the real controller and it will be hidden from all the other programs. 

The reason why DS4Windows needs to see the real controller is to get the input and translate it to the remapped virtual controller. 

What Would Happen if I Don’t Use HidHide?

If the game doesn’t detect the generic gamepad or joystick, then you would be fine. However, if the gamepad detects it, then you will have to face the double input issue. 

Here’s what some of the popular games do when faced with double input issues:

  • Rocket League will start 2 players mode randomly. 
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted will constantly warn the player that an unknown device needs to be set up. 
  • Blasphemous will constantly shift between the generic gamepad and virtual controller key icons.  

Uninstalling HidGuardian

HidHide is HidGuardian’s successor. So, both programs cannot be installed at the same time. 

Since the installer program is different, you won’t get any prompt during HidHide installation warning you to uninstall HidGuardian first. 

So, you will have to manually verify if HidGuardian is installed and then uninstall it. 

If both programs are installed together, they can cause confusion between emulated controllers and pose actual problems. Your controller will either not be detected by games or misbehaves in-game. 

To detect whether you already have HidGuardian in your system, you will need to download HidGuardian Installer Utility. 

You can download it using the link here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PNL3uv_4KektN00S9fm61djypSQ-3HED/view

After downloading this archive, follow the following steps. 

  • Extract the downloaded archive. 
  • Run the file HidGuardianInstaller.exe.
  • The installer utility will automatically detect if HidGuardian is installed or not. 
  • If it is not installed then you can close the utility. 

Uninstall-HidGuardian

  • If it says “HidGuardian is already installed” then click on Uninstall button.
  • Wait for the program to finish the uninstallation process. 
  • After the uninstallation is complete, close the utility and restart your PC. 

How to Set Up HidHide? – A Complete Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Downloading the Pre-Requisites 

Before installing HidHide to your system, you must first download all the prerequisites to ensure it works properly. 

Go to the HidHide website and download all the prerequisites listed there according to the version of your Windows.

HidHide-Visual-Cpp

Step 2: Download and Install Hid-Hide

After that, download the latest version of the HidHide program. It should be a file called HidHideMSI.msi. Open the downloaded file once finished and install it with default settings. (Just keep clicking on the Next button until the installation finishes). 

Once the installation is complete, close the utility by clicking on Finish and rebooting your PC. 

Step 3: Hide the Generic Gamepad or Controller

Open the HidHide Configuration Client from Start Menu and go to the Devices Tab. You will see the list of all the connected controllers in this tab. 

HidHide-Client-Start-Menu

You must connect the controllers you want to hide to your PC and see if they appear on the list. 

Mark the white box in front of the name of the controller you want to hide. Once you do it, a red lock icon should appear informing you that the controller is hidden. 

If your controller can be connected wirelessly, you can reconnect it to mark the new entries and hide the controller in both connection modes. 

Once you have marked all the entries, you should mark the box at the bottom saying Enable Hiding Devices to hide these controllers. 

Now, your controllers should be hidden from all programs. 

Remember that HidHide is more advanced than HidGuardian. It doesn’t automatically hide the same device type, but rather hides each device individually. So, even if you connect 4 controllers of the same model, you will have to hide them all separately. 

Step 4: Check to See if the Controllers are Hidden 

You can check to verify if the controllers are now being hidden from all programs. 

Go to "joy.cpl" or Game Controllers Utility in Control Panel. 

You can press Windows + R and use "joy.cpl" as the run command or Set up the USB Game Controllers window from the start menu directly.

Just make sure that only the controllers you have hidden in Step 3 are connected to the device. 

In this case, no controllers should appear in the Game Controllers list. 

So, it means your real controllers are successfully hidden. 

Step 5: Allowing DS4Windows or other Remapping Applications to See Controllers

Now that you have ensured that the controllers are hidden from all the programs, you should make them visible to DS4Windows or any other remapping program you are using to create the virtual controller. 

To do that, follow these steps:

  • Open HidHide Configuration Client from Start Menu.
  • Open the Applications tab. 
  • Click on the + icon and add the .exe file of your desired application to the white list. (e.g. DS4Windows.exe)
  • You can add as many applications as you want to this white list. You should only select the applications that you want to detect your real controllers which in this case are remapping applications like DS4Windows. 
  • HidHide whitelists the applications based on their location on your PC. So, if you move the executable application to another folder, you must add it to the HidHide whitelist again. 
  • Close the program and open it again. 
  • Go to the Devices tab to see if the hidden controllers are appearing there. 

HidHide-Client-Example-Setup

  • Remember! If you are using the DS4Windows program with a custom .exe name, then you should also add that custom .exe file to the list. 

You have successfully set up the HidHide program. All that is left to do is create the virtual controller (if you have not already created one) and enjoy your games with the emulated controller. 

Conclusion

HidHide is a Gaming Input Peripheral Device Firewall that allows you to hide the gamepad, joystick, or generic controllers from applications on your PC. 

The article above helps you download and set up the HidHide program. If you face any issues and want to test the controllers, then you can open HidHide Configuration Utility and un-check the Enable Device Hiding checkbox at the bottom. 

Please make sure to go through the process step-by-step and follow the guide thoroughly. 

Got any questions? Drop them in the comment section below and we will get back to you as soon as we can.