By default, connecting a DualSense to PC through DSX turns the touchpad into a basic mouse cursor. That’s handy for navigating menus from across the room, but it can cause unwanted cursor movement, camera drift, or input lag during actual gameplay if you’re not using it intentionally.
DSX lets you configure the touchpad into a few different modes depending on what you actually need from it.
Finding the Touchpad Settings
- Open DSX, go to Profiles, and edit your active profile
- Look for the Touchpad tab in the profile settings
- You’ll find an Output Mode setting here that controls how the touchpad behaves
Mouse Mode (the Default)
This treats the touchpad surface like a small trackpad, sliding your finger across it moves your desktop cursor.
Setting it up:
- Set Output Mode to Mouse
- If you want a tap to register as a click, enable Tap to Click
- If your thumb occasionally brushes the pad while you’re using the sticks and causes unwanted cursor drift, lowering the sensitivity can help reduce accidental input without turning off touchpad tracking entirely
This mode makes sense for general desktop use or menu navigation, but it’s worth switching to something else once you’re actually in a game, unintentional cursor movement from thumb placement is a common annoyance.
Controls Mode (Custom Buttons and Macros)
If you’d rather use the touchpad as extra buttons, useful for hotkeys, emulator shortcuts, or quick macros, this mode splits the pad into distinct zones you can bind individually.
Setting it up:
- Set Output Mode to Controls
- In the controls list, find the touchpad-specific entries (left touch, right touch, and other zone options depending on your version)
- Bind each zone to whatever keyboard key or controller button makes sense, a quick-menu shortcut, an inventory key, a streaming hotkey
This is the mode most people end up preferring for actual gameplay, since it turns unused touchpad real estate into functional input rather than a cursor you might trigger by accident.
Passthrough Mode (For Games with Native Touchpad Support)
Some PC games with genuine DualSense support use the touchpad click natively, for a map screen or inventory, the way it works on console. If DSX is simultaneously converting touch input into mouse movement, the two can conflict and cause jittery, inconsistent input.
Setting it up:
- Set Output Mode to Passthrough (or Passthru, depending on your version’s exact wording)
- In the touchpad’s individual zone bindings, set them to unbound so DSX isn’t intercepting anything
This mode requires ViGEmBus and HidHide both properly installed and running, since it depends on cleanly separating the raw controller signal from what DSX passes through. If you haven’t set these up, our Drivers page covers installing both.
Setting Up a Quick Toggle
If you want to switch touchpad behavior on the fly without digging through settings mid-game, DSX has an option for this in most versions.
- In your profile’s Other or general settings, look for a touchpad toggle option
- Enable it, then check what activation combination it assigns (commonly a button-hold plus a touchpad tap)
- Save your profile
Once set up, you can mute or unmute touch tracking on the fly, useful if you want mouse-style control available for menus but don’t want it active while you’re actively playing.
Choosing the Right Mode for What You’re Doing
For general desktop use: Mouse mode is the obvious choice, it’s what most people expect from a touchpad.
For gaming without native touchpad support: Controls mode turns otherwise-idle touchpad space into useful extra input, generally the better choice over leaving it in mouse mode during actual gameplay.
For games with native DualSense touchpad support: Passthrough mode avoids the conflict between DSX’s translation and the game’s own handling, letting the game use the touchpad exactly as it was designed to.
There’s no single correct setting across every situation, it genuinely depends on what you’re doing at any given moment, which is exactly why the quick-toggle option is worth setting up if you switch between these contexts often.
If your touchpad isn’t responding in any mode, or seems to be working inconsistently, our Troubleshooting guide covers broader detection issues that might be affecting more than just the touchpad specifically.
A Note on Passthrough Mode’s Requirements
Passthrough mode specifically depends on ViGEmBus and HidHide working together correctly, if either isn’t properly installed or HidHide isn’t actively hiding your physical controller, Passthrough can behave inconsistently even though Mouse and Controls modes work fine. If Passthrough specifically feels unreliable while your other settings work correctly, that’s a good sign to double-check your HidHide whitelist entry before assuming the touchpad setting itself is wrong.
Testing Your Configuration Before Committing
Once you’ve set a touchpad mode, it’s worth testing it briefly before assuming it’s correctly configured. For Mouse mode, just check that cursor movement feels smooth and click registration is reliable. For Controls mode, open a text editor or your game’s chat box and confirm each zone you’ve bound actually triggers the right key. For Passthrough mode, launch a game you know has native touchpad support and confirm the in-game function (map, inventory, whatever it’s bound to) responds correctly rather than triggering unexpected cursor movement instead.
Adjusting as You Add More Games
If you build separate profiles for different games, it’s worth reconsidering your touchpad mode per profile rather than assuming one setting works everywhere. A profile built for a game with native touchpad support benefits from Passthrough, while a profile for something without that support is often better served by Controls mode for custom shortcuts. Treating touchpad configuration as part of your overall per-game profile setup, rather than a single global setting, tends to give better results than trying to find one universal touchpad behavior that works equally well everywhere.