Xbox One Controller not identified Windows 7

Question

My issue was that when I was plugging in my XBox One controller in my Windows 7 PC, the error was popping up that the 'USB Device could not be identified.' Good job Microsoft.

The sad thing about this is that on Windows 7, the drivers for the Xbox One Controllers specifically are supposed to download automatically when the device is plugged in. Obviously, since the Device Manager cannot identify the device in the first place, it doesn't know what drivers it needs to automatically download.

Unfortunately for all of us, the solution to manually download the drivers on the support website (http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-on-windows/accessories/connect-xbox-one-controller-to-pc) is, at the time of writing, obsolete.

The webpage instructs you to follow these instructions:

1. Navigate to the Xbox One Controller results page on the Microsoft Update Catalog
2. Download the correct version of the driver for your operating system (64bit vs 32bit)
3. Extract the contents of the .cab into a file directory.
4. Right click on the xb1usb.inf file, click install, and click yes.

However, users will find that when doing 'Right Click/Install' on the 64bit version of the drivers that the method of installation is no longer supported in the file. It throws the following error:

The INF file you selected does not support this method of installation

Answer 1

Instantly I wanted to do some dirty edits to the file to add the flags and lines required for it to be supported, however before I did something so absolutely and utterly stupid as to make manual edits to driver software without any knowledge whatsoever on the subject, I decided to take the device manager for a test run.

Here's what I did:

1. Load up Device Manager
2. Find the unidentified device on the list (will have a yellow error triangle)
3. Click, "update driver"
4. Click, "browse my computer for driver software"
5. Click, "let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
6. Then Click, "Have Disk", and instead of selecting a disk drive, click browse
7. Find the IMF file that you downloaded from the Update Catalog, select it, and click Open.

The device drivers should install correctly now, and you'll be able to play your nerdy games with no dirty edits to the file.

Answer 2

On my Windows 7, my Xbox One controller works both, via USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, however, the controller's icon will show up in the Devices and printers menu only when I connect it via the USB 3.0 port! Hopefully this will also work on your PC.

Answer 3

I know this question is almost a year old, but there is an easier way to get the drivers. Although Microsoft removed the standalone driver installers from their website, there are still archived versions thanks to the Wayback Machine. It's as simple as using the installer and restarting your PC.

32-bit: Download

64-bit: Download