Inconsistent hiding of wiimotes

[Trihy]

• [x ] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [ x] I am submitting a bug report for existing functionality that does not work as intended
• [x ] I have read https://vigem.org/Community-Support/
• [x ] This isn't a feature request or a discussion topic

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Bug description

Hiding wiimotes gives inconsistent results.

Steps to reproduce

-Just connect wiimotes with Wiimotehook or similar tool, could be dolphin emulator too.
-Use hidhide to hide them.
-Works fine.

-But once they disconnect and reconnects, they can be seen again on windows joy.cpl

Hidhide still show them as hided. But they are not.

**Actual result:Sometimes are hided, sometimes are not
**Expected result:Stay hided

Screenshots

Machine info

**CPU-Architecture:x64
**Windows version: Windows 11
**Software/driver version(s):HidHide Drivers v1.2.98

Any other helpful information

[Kanuan]

When the issue happens, are you just reconnecting the device or are you re-pairing it to windows?

Edit 1

To clarify, repairing means:

• making windows itself search and ask the device for connection

OR

• When that notification "a device is attempting to connect" appears and you choose to accept it

[Trihy]

Hi. No, not re-pairing, at least not with the pairing button. Just connecting after a while or after a system restart.

Since Windows 10, wiimotes cannot be directly paired. At least the TR ones, not sure about the non TR ones (so you never see windows asking for connection permission or any notification related)

So you need to use wiimotehook or other program to pair them correctly. Dolphin emulator can do that too. But to reconnect (if you turn it off) you need to press a button or sometimes the 1+2 buttons, which can be somehow considered re-pairing? Maybe Windows assign another id when this happens.

[Kanuan]

Yeah... Things got complicated quickly.

Basically, there IS a bug with HidHide in which, when re-pairing a device, HidHide Configuration Client will SHOW it is the same device (and still "hidden" if it was before), but it will have a new Identification at system level and therefore won't be actually hidden.

What I think is happening when using this wiimotehook software is that it is not keeping the same device identification, either because of a bug, they didn't care since it doesn't make much of a difference, they can't because some windows stuff or some other explanation.

If the Device identification is different then HidHide will treat it as a new device and won't make it hidden. Unfortunately this is per-design and won't be changed since hiding devices only by its name has lead to many issues in the HidGuardian era.

[Trihy]

I think that can be related to that too.

To re-hide it I have to disable/enable hide device a couple of times on hidhide. Since it doesnt show as a different device.

Maybe any workaround to hide by name on this kind of devices? Wiimotes are way more tricky than ps controllers.

[Kanuan]

Only different thing is that when gets another id, hidhide doesnt show another device, show the same device hided, but not really hided. Is that correct too?

Yeah, that is a bug. HidHide should either show a new device or, if it somehow knows it is the same device but with a different ID then mark it as un-hidden.

But what is actually happening with HidHide not actually hiding the controller since it's a different ID is per-design

[Trihy]

Thanks. Well, at least learned a little more how hidhide works.

I´d edited the previous post but guess those possible workarounds are not planned atm.

[Trihy]

Steam after september update, can pair wiimotes. Well, will do it without asking. So another problem becomes when not hiding them. Dolphin and other programs wont work anymore with wiimotes if not closing steam first. Steam games are a no go, since steam takes control over wiimote.

Wonder if another workaround can be added to handle this.

[nefarius]

I can't make fixes for hardware I do not own if owners of said hardware don't contribute fixes or insights. Until then this will remain permanently stale.

[Trihy]

Hi. Think main problem is when wiimotes resync, they get another id which confuses hidhide and they re appear. Don't think it's a bug, just the way hidhide works.

I was reading about your tool to rewrite hw id but not sure if will help on this case.

[Trihy]

Did hidhide ever tried to hide devices by mac? Is it possible? Or viable?

[nefarius]

Nope, not every device has a MAC address so that is not possible to do consistently.

[Trihy]

Hi. Do you think we can add some exceptions for wiimotes? Since lightgun games are having a comeback in the community. And not being able to hide wiimotes is causing many problems. I have both TR and non TR wiimotes and could help with testing :)

[Trihy]

Thanks. Yes, I know it blocks by ID. Wiimotes use to get another ID everytime you hit 1+2 or sync button. But will try to implement other ways. I think vid&pid could be easier to do than mac address. Since I dont have too much knowledge.

[nefarius]

The ID changes more often on wireless devices because Windows has no clue how to make it truly unique if the device doesn't e.g. report a unique serial number in a standard way that Windows understands. So it's pretty much the fault of lazy hardware designers, otherwise it would always remain the same ID and you wouldn't have this problem.

[Trihy]

Well, after all, Wiimotes weren't designed to be used on Windows, so can't blame them :D

Will take a read at hidhide source and see if I can implement a vid&pid hide.

Thanks for the info and support.

[nefarius]

Well, after all, Wiimotes weren't designed to be used on Windows, so can't blame them :D

You wouldn't believe how many folks don't think that far and complain why peripherals not designed for a certain platform do not work as convenient for them 😉

[Trihy]

Been playing a little with CLI, to see better how hidhide works.

Im not sure if hiding HID will be enough or hiding BTHENUM will be needed too.

Lets see how it goes.

non TR and TR have a little different PID

--dev-hide "HID{00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb}_VID&0002057e_PID&0306\8&1f03f731&10&0000"
--dev-hide "HID{00001124-0000-1000-8000-00805f9b34fb}_VID&0002057e_PID&0330\8&1fdd1ee3&4&0000"

Everything after the latest \ I guess is the instance ID