AIM Joystick Probe¶
A free joystick tester for Windows built for cockpit builders. It shows a controller's complete button map (all 128 buttons of an AIM Ghost Joystick, not the 32 Windows' built-in joy.cpl stops at), and it measures what matters when you build or troubleshoot hardware: axis travel, noise and resolution, stick centering, switch bounce and report rate.
Why it exists¶
Windows' Game Controllers panel (joy.cpl) reads sticks through the legacy
WinMM API, which caps button reporting at 32. AIM Ghost Joysticks expose
128 buttons, so joy.cpl can't show most of them. AIM Joystick Probe reads the
device through DirectInput instead, so every button, axis and POV hat shows up.
It works with any controller: sticks, throttles, pedals, button boxes and gamepads.
What you can do¶
- See live buttons, axes and POV hats for any connected controller, with the axis names the device itself reports
- Spot which device a control belongs to: any device you touch lights up in the sidebar
- Check every axis for full travel, noise and resolution
- Watch the stick's gate shape and test its centering
- Graph axes over the last 5 seconds
- Log every press and release, with switch bounce flagged
- Walk a whole panel with Test all, buttons and axes
- Read each device's report rate in Hz
- Try force feedback effects on FFB sticks (experimental)
- Save a snapshot or copy a diagnostics report for support
- Choose what's on screen in Settings, and collapse any card
Every card has an (i) icon in its corner that opens its section of this guide.