Switch controllers have buttons PC games were never designed around — Capture, SL, and SR — and a face-button layout (A/B, X/Y) that sits in the opposite positions from an Xbox pad. BetterJoy lets you put those quirks to work: the special buttons can be remapped to keyboard key bindings of your choice, the Nintendo and Xbox layouts can be swapped, and the gyro can be mapped onto a stick. This guide covers each option and the one permission quirk that catches people out.
What can be remapped
- SL, SR, and Capture → keyboard keys. The official feature list is explicit: you can remap the special buttons (SL, SR, Capture) to key bindings of your choice. On a joined pair of Joy-Cons, SL/SR are the little rail buttons; Capture is the square button on the left Joy-Con and Pro Controller.
- A/B and X/Y swap. An app setting swaps the structural layout between the Nintendo arrangement and the Xbox arrangement, so the button your thumb expects to be “confirm” actually confirms in XInput games.
- Gyro → joystick. Since v7, gyro motion can be mapped to an analogue stick output — the sibling feature to gyro-to-mouse, covered briefly below.
- Gyro → analogue triggers. Gyro can also be mapped to trigger inputs (added back in v6.3), for tilt-to-accelerate style experiments.
Before you start: the administrator note
Here is the catch that generates most “my remap does nothing” reports: if keyboard or mouse mappings do not register in your game, run BetterJoyForCemu.exe as Administrator (right-click → Run as Administrator). Windows restricts how a normal-privilege program can inject keystrokes into a game running with higher privileges, and the official documentation names exactly this situation as the reason to elevate. You do not need admin rights for ordinary controller use — only when keyboard/mouse simulation is involved.
If BetterJoy is not set up yet, do the install and first-run steps first; the package is on the download page.
Step 1: Connect the controller and open its settings
Pair your Pro Controller or Joy-Cons and confirm the icon is showing in the BetterJoy window. Then open the settings for that controller inside BetterJoy. This is where per-controller options live — output behaviour, the settings described below, and the binding entries for the special buttons.
Step 2: Bind a special button to a keyboard key
- Find the binding entries for the special buttons — SL, SR, and Capture.
- For the button you want to reuse, assign the keyboard key it should produce. Sensible choices: Capture → a screenshot key or push-to-talk; SL/SR → confirm/cancel or item keys in games that leave them unused.
- Apply the change and test it in a harmless place first — a text field will show you instantly whether the key is being produced.
- If nothing is produced in your game but it works on the desktop, that is the privilege issue above: relaunch BetterJoy as Administrator.
Step 3: Swap A/B and X/Y if the layout fights you
Nintendo prints A where Xbox prints B. Games show you Xbox prompts, so “press B” can mean the button labelled A on your controller. If you find yourself confirming when you meant to cancel, turn on the A/B and X/Y swap setting in BetterJoy’s app settings. It changes the reported positions so prompts match positions rather than labels. Try both ways for ten minutes — there is no universally right answer, only the one your thumbs prefer.
Step 4: Map gyro to the stick (optional)
Gyro-to-joystick presents your tilts as right-stick input on the virtual controller. It is the fallback for games that accept only controller input and have no mouse aiming at all. It is less precise than gyro-to-mouse (the stick’s deadzones and smoothing get a vote), but it works everywhere XInput works. Our dedicated gyro as mouse guide compares the two approaches in more depth.
Where these settings are stored
BetterJoy keeps its settings in BetterJoyForCemu.exe.config, next to the executable. Most remapping is done in the app’s settings screens, but some documented behaviours — third-party controller calibration values, whether Joy-Cons rejoin automatically, and more — live in that file. Our config file guide explains what is in it and how to edit it safely with a backup.
Practical binding ideas
A few assignments players commonly settle on: Capture → screenshot key (it sits exactly where your thumb already goes after a good moment); Capture → push-to-talk in voice chat, which keeps your keyboard hand free; SL/SR → save-state and load-state keys in emulators, turning two nearly invisible rail buttons into the fastest save/load pair you own; and Capture → media play/pause for couch sessions. The pattern to copy is not the specific key but the logic: bind the button to something frequent, keyboard-shaped, and missed by its absence on a normal pad — that is exactly the gap BetterJoy’s remapping was built to fill.
Frequently asked questions
Can I remap every button, like a full macro tool?
That is not BetterJoy’s design. Its remapping focuses on the special buttons (SL, SR, Capture) to keyboard keys, layout swap, and gyro mapping. For full per-button remapping of the standard pad buttons, your game or emulator’s own input settings are the right place.
My keyboard bindings work in Windows but not in my game. Why?
Almost always privileges: the game is running elevated and BetterJoy is not. Run BetterJoyForCemu.exe as Administrator — this is precisely the case the official documentation describes.
Does remapping work with a single Joy-Con?
Yes, and it is genuinely useful there: a lone Joy-Con has few buttons, so binding Capture or the rail buttons to keyboard keys recovers functions the layout lacks. See using a single Joy-Con on PC.
Where are all the tutorials?
The tutorials index has everything, from pairing to gyro aiming.