What is JoyToKey?
JoyToKey (or Joy2Key) enables PC game controllers to emulate the keyboard and mouse input, so that windows applications and web games can be controlled with your favorite joysticks! Whenever buttons and sticks are pressed on the controllers, JoyToKey converts them into keyboard strokes and/or mouse movements so that the target application will work as if a real keyboard and a mouse were used.
Joystick to Keyboard input
JoyToKey is a shareware, but you can download the latest version for free. Try it on your PC to play games which don't have native controller support with your favorite joysticks and/or use it for general applications to improve efficiency by registering frequently used key shortcuts as a joystick input. If you find JoyToKey useful, you can purchase a license key at any time from JoyToKey application menu.
Information
Location of user configuration data (profiles)
Starting from version 6.3, when JoyToKey is installed from the installer (JoyToKeySetup_en.exe), user configuration data will be by default stored in "JoyToKey" folder in user's "Documents" folder.
In case you upgrade JoyToKey from the version older than 6.3, please manually copy the configuration files (JoyToKey.ini and *.cfg files) from the old "JoyToKey" folder into your "Documents/JoyToKey" folder so that your old configuration data can be accessed. In case of issues or questions, please refer to this post for more details.
JoyToKey Version 6.5 Released
Version 6.5 includes the following changes:
- New feature to paste a pre-defined text to the target application
- Enhancement for "Re-process when the same key continues while it's already pressed" option:
- If this option is OFF, when the emulation of the same key continues (during sequence or from other buttons), that key will be only emulated once and kept hold.
For example, if a button for "SHIFT+RIGHT" and a button for "SHIFT+DOWN" are both pressed, SHIFT will be only emulated once and will be kept until both buttons are released.
- If this option is ON, SHIFT key will be pressed and released for each button, i.e. pressed and released twice in total.
- If this option is OFF, when the emulation of the same key continues (during sequence or from other buttons), that key will be only emulated once and kept hold.
- Minor bug fixes
Besides, the following changes have been included in recent releases:
- JoyToKey is packaged and distributed with an installer (Distribution of ZIP file format is still available)
- User configuration data is by default stored in "JoyToKey" folder in user's "Documents" folder.
In case you upgrade JoyToKey from an older version, please copy (or move) the old "JoyToKey" folder into your "Documents" folder so that you can continue to access your configuration data.
- Supported repeat and toggle click in mouse absolute movement mode
- Enhanced the association of profiles - Ability to associate based on the target window title, besides the file path of the target application
- Enhanced ButtonAlias function - Now support 3 button combination
- Support up to max 50 joysticks (previously 32 joysticks)
- Support up to max 128 buttons (previously 32 buttons)
- Enhanced an execution of an external program to be able to
- pass command parameters
- specify the starting working directory
- In case JoyToKey is started when no controller is connected, JoyToKey tries to automatically detect devices until one controller is connected. From this version, users can change this behaviour such that JoyToKey continues the auto detection until two controllers are connected, or completely disable this auto detection feature. For more details, please refer to this page.
- Single click a task tray icon to refresh joystick connections
When you connect a new joystick to the PC, you can just click the task tray icon to get it recognized (either left click or right click). - Supported multiple screens for the absolute movement of a mouse cursor.
- Supported additional key-code emulations such as the volume control (up / down / mute), media control (prev / next / play / stop), and SCROLL_LOCK key.
- Changed the default key emulation code for arrow keys, R-Alt and R-Ctrl, to fix some compatibility issue with recent Windows 10. In case it causes a problem for certain old games and you want to use the old key code, in the button assignment window, please select an equivalent key (from right-click menu) which is labeled as "for DirectInput".
Old 5.2.1 version
In case you're having a compatibility issue with some online game, the following two versions can be downloaded from here.
- the latest version - which is supposed to fix the issue
- the old version 5.2.1 - which seems to be unaffected by the issue
WARNING: Be careful with unofficial download sites
JoyToKey seems to be distributed in various unofficial websites, and some of them seem to be distributing a tweaked software (or "download manager") to install extra applications on your PC.
They are not official distributions, and the author of JoyToKey is not involved in any of those activities. Unless you have a good reason to trust those unofficial websites, you should download JoyToKey from the official download page in order to avoid unnecessary troubles.
(There does exist some useful 3rd party websites though, for example, a site for people with disabilities where JoyToKey is packaged with pre-defined configurations for PC accessibility)
Releases
- Aug 16, 2020
- JoyToKey 6.5 Release
- Jun 3, 2020
- JoyToKey 6.4.3 Release (bug fix)
- Apr 19, 2020
- JoyToKey 6.4.2 Release
- Jul 21, 2019
- JoyToKey 6.3 Release
- Feb 2, 2019
- JoyToKey 6.2 Release
- Sep 23, 2018
- JoyToKey 6.1.1 Release
- Sep 16, 2018
- JoyToKey 6.1 Release
- Sep 9, 2018
- JoyToKey 6.0 Release
- Feb 23, 2017
- JoyToKey 5.9 Release
- Dec 27, 2015
- JoyToKey 5.8.2 Release
- Nov 21, 2015
- JoyToKey 5.8.1 Release (bug fix)
- Nov 7, 2015
- JoyToKey 5.8 Release
- Aug 28, 2015
- JoyToKey 5.7.1 Release
- Apr 18, 2015
- JoyToKey 5.7 Release
- May 14, 2014
- JoyToKey 5.6 Release
- Jan 26, 2014
- JoyToKey 5.5.1 Release (minor bug fix)
- Jan 18, 2014
- JoyToKey 5.5 Release
- Nov 4, 2013
- JoyToKey 5.4.2 Release
- Oct 17, 2013
- JoyToKey 5.4.1 Release
- Oct 16, 2013
- JoyToKey 5.4 Release
- Aug 31, 2013
- JoyToKey 5.3.1 Release
- Aug 21, 2013
- JoyToKey 5.3 Release
- Sep 2, 2012
- JoyToKey 5.2 Release
- Apr 19, 2012
- JoyToKey 5.1 Release
- Sep 1, 2011
- JoyToKey 5.0 Release