Doc Category: Getting started

When you load a profile, you can use View – Profile summary to see a graphical representation of what the controls are.

You can also open this window from the Edit profile window by clicking the Preview button. In this case, the summary is useful for checking that you have defined your controls correctly.

The example above is from the Universal driving profile. The controls are not specific to any game or application, so all the controls appear under Apps – Default (which means ‘in any application’). The profile contains some Driving controls that we can enable by pressing F11 and disable by pressing F12. When they are enabled, we can move the mouse pointer into four regions of the screen to accelerate, brake and steer left and right in a racing game.

You can view any notes or instructions for a profile using View – Profile notes. If you are creating a profile for others to use, you can include any helpful information for users here.

When you start Alt Controller for the first time, you will see this window. Alt Controller has loaded a new (empty) profile. A profile is a set of mappings from computer inputs (like key presses and mouse clicks) to actions that you want Alt Controller to perform.

Alt Controller runs one profile at a time. Typically users create a separate profile for each game or application they want to control.

Alt Controller comes with a few sample profiles for you to try. For example, the Universal driving profile is a generic profile that can be used in a variety of racing games.

To load a profile, choose File – Open.

To understand what a profile does, see Previewing profiles.

To change the folder in which your profiles are stored by default, see Folder options.

To download more profiles, see the Profiles page.

To stop using a profile, you can either:

• Close Alt Controller (“X” button, File – Close, or Alt+F4), or
• Load a new blank profile (File – New, or Ctrl+N), or
• Load a different profile (File – Open, or Ctrl+O).

By default, Alt Controller automatically loads the profile you last used when it starts up; you can turn this behaviour off in Tools – Options – Start up if you wish.

If you have an earlier version of Alt Controller installed, you can upgrade to the latest version by simply downloading and running the latest installer. There is no need to uninstall the old version. In this way, your program options will be preserved and you can start using the new version immediately.

Your existing profiles (sets of controls) will work in the new version of the software. It’s a good idea to double-check that profiles work as expected in the new version of the software before you save them. After profiles have been saved using a newer version of the software, they may no longer work in an older version of the software.

If you no longer wish to use Alt Controller, you can uninstall it as follows:

• Open Windows settings – Apps (Control panel – Add / remove programs on older versions of Windows)
• Select Alt Controller
• Choose Uninstall
• Follow the instructions to remove the program

Alt Controller runs on Windows computers. To install Alt Controller, follow these steps:

• Click the Download button on the home page.
• When the download has completed, double-click the installer program that has been downloaded to run it (AltControllerSetup-….exe).
• For security reasons, your browser may ask you to confirm that you want to run the installer. Choose OK (or equivalent option).
• Follow the instructions in the install wizard (Next, Next, …, Finish).
• Start the program by double-clicking the shortcut on your desktop or selecting the program from the Windows Start menu.