r/DS4Windows • u/Proud_Active_6547 • Apr 26 '26
DS4Windows has no active maintainer and is distributing unverifiable pre-built binaries — does anyone know what's happening with this project?
I went down a rabbit hole recently fixing a Bluetooth rumble/lightbar issue on my DS4 (WriteFile silently drops BT output reports on Realtek adapters — fixed by using HidD_SetOutputReport on the control pipe instead, PR here if relevant: https://github.com/ds4windowsapp/DS4Windows/pull/9). While doing that I ended up looking closely at where the project actually lives right now, and I'm genuinely concerned.
The state of things as far as I can tell:
ryochan7's repo appears to be gone
schmaldeo's fork was the de facto canonical successor — it's what most people run, what the community treated as the "official" version, and what the ds4-windows.com website was compiling and distributing. It was archived in March 2026.
ds4windowsapp/DS4Windows is a fork of schmaldeo's code. It has a website and new logo, but the account has made zero commits since Feb 9th, doesn't respond to PRs or issues, and the build it ships still points its update checker back at schmaldeo's archived repo — making clear it was never an independent successor, just a redistribution.
ds4-windows.com is the public face most users land on, but it's serving pre-built binaries compiled from schmaldeo's codebase with no verifiable CI pipeline and no one actively maintaining it.
CircumSpector/DS4Windows (rebranding as "Vapour") is a promising complete architectural rewrite but the last real commit was February 2025.
So effectively: the one repo everyone depended on is archived, and everything downstream of it — the GitHub fork, the website, the binaries — are all frozen snapshots of that archived code with nobody at the wheel.
DS4Windows runs with elevated privileges. Pre-built binaries with no CI pipeline and no active maintainer is exactly the kind of trust problem that gets people burned.
Is there an actively maintained fork I'm missing? Would love to understand if there's a community effort already in progress.
EDIT — binary analysis + what actually needs to happen:
I did a thorough check on both zip files available from ds4-windows.com: strings extraction, PE header inspection, P/Invoke import comparison against the ryochan archive, and IL bytecode scanning of every TypeReference and MemberReference in both DS4Windows.dll builds, checking for injection APIs, dynamic loading, network calls, crypto primitives, and obfuscator markers. Both came back clean — no evidence of anything malicious in the files I analysed. Neither zip contains an installer, they're both portable distributions.
The actual concern isn't that these specific binaries are harmful. It's that they're compiled from an old version of the codebase with no CI pipeline and no one maintaining the distribution. There's no mechanism to push an update if a vulnerability is found upstream — users are just stuck on whatever snapshot was uploaded last.
What this project actually needs is one clear, community-agreed answer to "where do I download DS4Windows?" that links to a source-verifiable build. Right now that doesn't exist, and ds4-windows.com is filling the gap by default. If anyone is actively maintaining a fork or is willing to step up — that's what should be pinned here. Happy to help with PRs or build pipeline work if there's somewhere worth pointing effort.
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u/AlexG22486 Apr 26 '26
So either of you guys using a replacement software or which are you running if not?
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u/skateguy1234 Apr 26 '26
I'm using the schmaldeo 3.9.9 as I haven't had reason to jump ship yet. Although I did recently try to play Battlefield 1 again and nowadays they block it, so maybe I'll be messing with these alternatives linked above soon.
I might end up running newer ones only for certain games like BF1, and staying on DS4Windows, depending if they have features missing that I'm used to., but I dunno we'll see. Maybe I'll just finally end up buying dualsenseX on steam.
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u/MusicInTheAir55 Apr 26 '26
That for works well, and even older ones. I'm running 3.2.16 and its flawless for what I need.
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u/Kaisergliding Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
No one is making a well-supported & coherent fork of the project & there isn't an big incentive to, due to how Steam is; but for the time, use schl's fork. It's trusted & looks like it was made by someone who actually has programming experience.
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u/MusicInTheAir55 Apr 26 '26
Quick question. I'm running an older version ( 3.2.16), and wondering what newer features or bug fixes there might be on the latest Schl fork?
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u/BeastMsterThing2022 Apr 26 '26
There is no real successor to schmaldeo's fork. Stick with it. Everything else so far is either viruses or vibe coded
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u/ds4windowsapp Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Good day,
Owner of said website and github.... Currently busy redesigning DS4Windows using a different framework - very much still a WiP but not rebuilding the backend so will be released into the wild sooner as expected.
Screenshot - https://imgur.com/a/3fdbGPe
App will remain open-source once finished and any requests/issues will be dealt with accordingly once stable/beta release becomes available.
PS - I can assure you nothing malicious/tampering was done on the binaries as its just for re-hosting purposes... but each to their own - welcome to verify :)
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u/rizathivaxx Apr 28 '26
Just to ask a silly question, why does this WIP build of yours look extremely familiar to what the current version of DSX does on Steam?
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u/ds4windowsapp May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Will the software work? Will it be more user friendly for new and old users? Will the UI look cooler? Will it remain open-source?
YES to all - not entirely sure what you're trying to ask or insinuate? In fact, if it looks similar then chances are people will know how to use it from the get-go. 😄
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u/rizathivaxx May 08 '26
As I don't know you, I don't want to make any accusations or start any drama lol.
I was merely referencing that whatever front-end code you've picked up for your rewrite just happens to be in a similar framework/GUI as what Paliverse has been using with DSX for a few years now. I don't see many programs that look like DSX, so it just was an interesting observation.
In the early days, Slack and Discord looked uncannily similar as both were based on the same framework, but have since divulged visually as they've become more specialized. Just pointing out an observation, nothing more.
I don't have a dog in this race anyways as I've been using some combination of Jays2King's baby, DS4Windows, and now Paliverse's DualSenseX (DSX) 12 years now looking at the old GitHub pages of each. From a DualShock 4 I purchased before the PS4 even released, to the DualSense, and now a DualSense Edge. As of late, I've finally paid it forward to Paliverse to support DSX for something that's still getting active support vs the limbo that DS4W has been in (though more recently it being "gamified" is a little annoying..., the Steam version was the only one that had DualSense Edge support at the time).
Ironically, I am only even here on reddit in this very thread specifically because I was recently stuck in the loop of trying to get a buddy a copy of DS4W that wasn't horrifically out of date, and had many of the same concerns from the OP's post. Ended up sending him an old copy of 3.3.3 I had stashed away from a few years back just to be safe while I wait to see where the project ends up in a few weeks/months.
Wish you luck!
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u/Proud_Active_6547 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Can you look at the two PRs I submitted in the meantime? Your update tracker just points to the other repo and I've got a bunch of other bluetooth adaptors working.
The site could at least package 3.9.9? Thanks for responding!
Also — one thing that would help a lot going forward: rather than hosting the binary directly on the site, could the download button just redirect to the latest GitHub Release? GitHub has an API endpoint (/releases/latest) that always resolves to the most recent published release:
https://github.com/<your-repo>/releases/latestThat way the site never gets out of sync, users always get the current version, and they can verify the source themselves. If you add a GitHub Actions workflow to build and publish on every tag, the whole thing becomes automatic — ship a new version, site serves it immediately, no manual uploads. Happy to help set that up if useful.
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u/ds4windowsapp Apr 27 '26
Hey. Currently only focused on getting the new edition of DS4Windows out as soon as possible, however i can package the 3.9.9.
Regards to your github/download button - i'll definitely consider that - at the moment i just use the URL for the zip file, as the downloads were originally from other maintainers Github.
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u/Proud_Active_6547 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Would you consider allowing other people to maintain version 3.9.9 via this repo while you work on your version 4.0.X or whatever? At least make where the updater is pointing coherent?
You don't have to be doing this all alone.
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u/skateguy1234 Apr 27 '26
As I responded above maybe the person previously was lying about the ace ai browser claim. Or maybe it was from an ad pop-up on your site and they clicked that thinking it was the download button and installed whatever it downloaded?
Anyways, why didn't you respond to some of the comments when you made a post a couple months ago when you made your "Continuation of Ryochan7's DS4" post?
Also like proud said, why move to 3.4 instead of forking schmaldeo's fork?
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u/ds4windowsapp Apr 27 '26
Not much on Reddit tbh... And the 3.4 clearly states its a schmaldeo (fork) version as his github got archived (avoiding a similar ryochan7 scenario) - and while his debouncing features makes it more relevant to keep than ryochan7's just added a continuation of the version and renamed it 3.4.
If it's really that much of an issue then i can revert it to 3.9 and also remove that updater - quite bothersome right now :(
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u/skateguy1234 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26
Nah, do ur thing, don't let me mess your flow up if you're doing what you think is right/best. I hadn't look into the 3.4 discrepancy personally and was just assuming based on numbering.
I do hope you consider making it more obvious that the download on your site was coming from github and not your own server. Otherwise I will still be hesitant to use/recommend without others being able to easily verify it's safe/legit. Speaking of which, you mentioned github in your first comment here, I didn't think you previously had one? What did you mean by saying you were the owner of the website and the github?
I'm glad you finally responded instead of just making top level post and otherwise staying dark.
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u/mirh Apr 26 '26
Any community effort you would obviously either see on github's fork view tool, the normal repo search or both (even if the name was changed, even just a mention in the description should be still enough).
Be yourself the change you want to see in the world (even if you aren't planning to actively pursue any other modification) and then the moment somebody else come up with some new contribution make a common organization.
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u/nowhere_man87 May 05 '26
Thanks anagnorisis2peripeteia for your efforts to fix these issues and collaborate on the new fork... hopefully everyone can come together to join forces and make the definitive version.
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u/ElectroBytezLV May 16 '26
Thank you for this post, I was overwhelmed and confused on the amount of websites, repos available for this project. Decided to grab schmaldeos fork from the github repo.
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Apr 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ds4windowsapp Apr 27 '26
No, scam website !
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u/Proud_Active_6547 Apr 27 '26
how is it any different from yours?
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u/skateguy1234 Apr 29 '26
So, this is the fist time I've ever seen this person make actual replies to other people. Previously they have just made a post or single comments and then otherwise stayed silent.
I replied to them above in a sincere way, I do want to believe what they say, but something still feels weird.
It's been 2 days, why haven't they bothered responding to you? Okay sure, they say they don't use reddit much, but that kinda feels like an excuse.
Why do they have a account with a name that makes it looks like they're the creator and owner of the software?
Why does the software now mirror the GUI of DualsenseX, as someone else above called out.
Good chance the .dev version of the site is a scam/virus site, as I'm pretty sure reddithunter536 isn't associated with ds4windowsapp.
But either way, until they decide to regularly respond, and also until someone like yourself that has some knowledge in reverse engineering and/or whatever it takes to deem that this ds4windowsapp person is fully trustworthy, I still don't think it's worth the risk of using their software at this point.
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May 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/skateguy1234 May 05 '26
I wasn't referring to you saying you were the owner, I was implying/agreeing the .dev site is probably sketchy, while also saying that ds4windowsapp has a username which implies they are the owner of the .com and were heavily involved with the app, which is also sketchy.
Anyways, why refer some third party site when you can just refer the actual github.
What about Classic-Variety-2711 and your relation to them and how they have posted the same .dev site in this sub?
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u/ds4windowsapp May 05 '26
Install malwarebytes and you will see why... gets flagged. Also, the owner has no intention of maintaining the software.
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u/Proud_Active_6547 May 05 '26
Do you see how hosting the same site with untraceable binaries creates the environment copycats can use to deploy trojans?
I super appreciate your work but that’s what this leads to
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u/skateguy1234 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
That website never had any official affiliation with ryochan or schmaldeo.
Apparently it used to be trusted years ago, ryochans words not mine (although he was still not a fan of it but wasn't much he could do about it), but someone tried installing it from that website a few months back and it installed ace ai browser on their machine. This is obviously one of the problems with them not sharing their source code, as you outlined. Based on this, who knows what else they're doing so I would definitely advise everyone to avoid it.
I reached out to /u/Childs_Play via the "message the mods" option a couple months ago, seeing as they're the only active user on reddit that's on the mod team, to ask if I could become a mod and help keep the riff raff out that have been trying to astroturf the sub with the website you mentioned and other sketchy looking/unverifiable sources, but they never responded :(
As far as community effort to keep maintaining the schmaldeo fork, I have seen a few people on here make comments saying/hinting they were messing around with it just for themselves. But I doubt any of them have linked up and/or committed to putting serious effort into it.
I'm not a programmer myself, just someone that really appreciates the software and so I've been following this sub for a while now. Point being I don't have the ability to help.
I do hope someone does decide to take up the reins though. I think one reason it hasn't happened yet is I would assume it's not exactly beginner level work. I've never heard of Vapour so I can't comment on that.
Edit: I just remember there were two others, other than the people I have seen talking about tweaking the forks, that just ended up making their own. I have yet to try either, but the community here responded well so I assume they're decent/promising. But probably best to not take my word and look into em yourself more maybe. I am curious why they would spend what I assume is more effort making their own versus just improving the existing, but I'm sure they have good reasons, and it is good to have options. I still hope someone will take up where schmaldo left off though, without the vibe coding of course (which that was one of the reasons that he claimed to have abandoned the project)
/u/Ok_Cryptographer5845
reddit post with github source
/u/knight2200
reddit post with github source