Wired xbox 360 controller switched from Player 1 to Player 2 durring gameplay.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the PS3 controller != the 360 controller.  /sarcasm 

Your answer has absolutely nothing to do with the question at hand.

A stupid stupid problem to be having.  Inexcusable for microsoft to be promoting this controller as some universal controller for pcs that will be plug and play wtih Live games and it has no configuration screen!! Just the windows calibration screen and that's it?  No instructions.  Nothing.  It automatically installs the drivers and performs mysteriously, changing the "player" setting at random.  No ability to swap axiis.  Idiotic.

I cannot believe it's been nearly a decade and yet the problem is still an issue. 

MICROSOFT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

The Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers are your flagship controllers man! How have you still not gotten around to fixing an issue that often renders them completely useless? This is a huge problem! 

JUST MAKE A CONFIGURATION WINDOW! YOU ALREADY HAVE A GAMING SECTION IN YOUR SETTINGS APP FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! JUST ADD IT THERE! OR BETTER YET, ADD THE XBOX CONTROLLER AS A DEVICE IN THE BLUETOOTH AND OTHER DEVICES SCREEN SO IT CAN BE MODIFIED JUST LIKE THE MOUSE, KEYBOARD, TRACKPAD, AND EVEN USB PORTS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FOR YEARS!

How can it be this hard?

I have been having this same problem for years and years, I thought "I shall buy myself a proper Microsoft branded controller for games rather than these cheap knock-offs" but nope this is how it works...

• I plug in my wired xbox controller for windows, into my spare USB2.0 slot, (this is after a fresh install of Windows 10)
• The computer detects it, correctly installs all the drivers and all this "xbox" related crap.
• I start to play a game and everything is fine, then all of a sudden.. it becomes unresponsive (remember this is wired, the only one that is wired too) I look down to see "Player 2" LED is lit up...
• I unplug and re-plug in the controller, sometimes that fixes it, sometimes it doesn't...
• I then look over at my PS4 controller, and think "Sod it, lets have a look" and plug that into my computer while game is running...
• Windows detects it is a game controller, and all buttons respond
• The game plays perfectly with no hiccups, no player 2 icon nothing....

So there is my solution, throw that piece of Microsoft crap in the bin! They obviously have no idea what the hell they are doing with this stuff, and really still after all these years (been having this problem since Vista - and I blamed that OS) still haven't fixed the issue..

I have been using my PS4 controller for the past 3 years on my PC without any problems, It is still synced to my PS4 if I unplug the USB cable from the PC and turn the controller on (PS button) then my PS4 boots up without any issues... Microsoft take note, that's how EASY it should be in 2018! I shouldn't have to configure files, play around with registry entries, or even restart my blooming PC! Its 2018 this should be standard now.. even my Samsung detects my PS4 controller without any issues (using micro-usb to micro-usb of course)! Get with the times!

• The fact is, its still Windows that is allowing me to use my PS4 controller properly, why don't you just get rid of this xbox crap and just use the same "generic drivers" that the PS4 controller has, coz guess what.. that works!

use a usb hub happens to me all the time never goes to player 3 or 4 always switches from 1 to 2.

i actually replaced the controller i thught it was broken but even the new one does it so good job microsoft, i use a 4 port rockband usb hub from y old xbox set it up on the pc and it never switched again.