Profile selection using auto profile rules
DS4Windows application supports several profiles with different mapping rules for keys and buttons, because not all games work the best using the same gamepad setup.
User can manually choose an active profile via DS4Windows settings screen, through command line interface or setting up an automatic linking between foreground processes and profiles.
Automatic profile switching is defined via Auto-Profile list in DS4Windows settings. The auto-profile setting can change a profile automatically when an active foreground process is changed (ie. a new application is launched). A match between a profile and process is defined using a process path and/or window title keywords.
Path = Process path (fex c:\apps\steam\eurotruck2.exe). Window title = The title of an active window (fex Calculator).
Search keyword supports wildchars:
ABC = Exact match of path or window title with a ABC keyword (path or window title name)
^ABC = Match ABC keyword at the beginning of path or title
ABC$ = Match ABC keyword at the end of the path or title
*ABC = Contains ABC keyword in a path or title
For example "notepad.exe$" path keyword would match with "C:\windows\notepad.exe" and "c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe" process names, but does not match with "c:\apps\notepad.exe.plusplus.exe".
Using both path and window title keywords at the same time allows to setup auto-profile rules to select different profiles for applications which share the same process but different window title. For example Windows Store apps share the same c:\windows\system32\applicationFrameHost.exe process name. Using both path and window title search keywords it is possible to identify different WinStore applications even when the process path is the same for all of them.
If you use wildchars in path or window title search keywords then it may be possible that several rules match the same process. DS4Windows picks up the first matching rule, so you may have to re-order rules to do what you want. Click right mouse button on top of rule list to move items up or down in the list.
If this option is enabled in auto-profile settings screen then the "Logs" tab page of DS4Windows and "%APPDATA%\DS4Windows\Log" file folder shows detailed messages about process and window title names and how those match auto-profile rules. This is useful when a new process needs a special auto-profile rule, but the correct path or window title is not obvious. Enable this option only when you need to fine tune auto-profile rules, but keep it off in a normal usage of DS4Windows because it generates lots of debug messages.
By default the DS4Windows app reverts back to default profile when an unknown process is the active foreground process and none of the auto-profile rules match with the process or window title. Sometimes it might be useful to indicate DS4Windows that a profile should not be reverted back to default profile and just leave the currently active profile as is when certain process is running in foreground. To do this uncheck the "Revert to default profile on unknown process" option.
If you define "^c:" rule (ie. match all process path values beginning with C: keyword) and set it as the last rule then this rule would select a profile if none of the previous rules matched.
