How can I Override controller input when remapping the buttons?

So I'm using an Xbox 360 Controller for PC Gaming. Over time I've used several remapping programs (Xpadder, JoyToKey, Steam Controller Mapping, Etc.) and they all seem to have the same limitation (When playing a non-steam game... Playing Steam Games is a whole other mess). When I'm playing a game with "Baked In" controller support, remapping a button does not override the button. It just seems to append the remapped key to the signal when I press a button.

While this works great for games without controller support, it causes madness in a game with controller support, since now the game is trying to take both the controller command and the remapped keyboard command at the same time. Is there some way to completely override the button signal from going through when I'm remapping the controller, either in one of the listed apps or through some outside means?

Solution 1:

Unplug the controller, start the game, plug the controller in.
While this won't work for all games, it should work for most, because most games look for input devices at launch and won't find a controller if it's plugged in after the game has launched.

Solution 2:

To add to @Chippie's answer, I would first take that into consideration. If that doesn't do anything or does not work in some cases, then I advise deleting or clearing the configuration files for keymapping in stubborn games. Two important things to keep in mind are 1; some games have their default binds hard-coded in and cannot be removed or cleared, and 2; due to the nature of PC games, the configuration files will not only vary in format, but will also differ in location per game.

If you want to find configuration files for a game but don't know where to start, there is some advice I can give you from personal experience.

1. AppData paths seem to be a preference among developers. Settings held in AppData are typically stored in %AppData% (AppData\Roaming). Another good place to look will be %LocalAppData% (AppData\Local). Rarely, game settings or data are stored in LocalLow (%UserProfile%\AppData\LocalLow).

2. Going with this approach, the next step is to look for folders associated with either the game name directly, or the developer/publisher's name. For instance; Ruiner store's it's save data in %LocalAppData%\Ruiner\, whereas The Chronicles of Riddick is located in %LocalAppData%\Atari\The Chronicles of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena\.

3. Some games store settings in the registry, the same principals above still apply in some cases, but settings will most likely be in the HKCU\Software or HKLM\Software registry hives.

Assuming you have found a game's settings files, and that the keybinds can be modified, locate where the binds are and clear them. Now run a game with your controller and see if you can apply gamepad input as the primary/only input. Hope this information can help you out.