The Settings > Controls menu shows you all your attached devices on the left.

Important to remember is that every device has THREE control configs!
1. General controls
2. Airplanes controls
3. Specific <aircraft> controls
More about this later on.

In the middle you will see Categories: very convenient if you are looking for specific controls. You can of course use Search but that will usually result in multiple entries and it may not be easy to figure out which one you need.

Whenever you see a list of controls in the middle section you can always press Esc to get back to the Categories, regardless of how you got there.

To the right of each control (in the list of controls) you will see General or Aircraft: this tells you to which config this control belongs. Again, more about this later.

To the far right of each control you will see a cog wheel to set various options for that control like Input repetition, Set control on release, Tweak action curve, etc.

On the far right of the Controls menu you can click on Hardware settings to edit general er... hardware settings, like curces, sensitivity, deadzone, etc.

Before you start editing controls be sure to select the desired device.

If you simply start editing controls you will be editing the default configs and at one moment MSFS2024 will prompt you to save the config, simply because you can't edit and overwrite default configs. So enter a logical name and save it. From there on you will be editing that saved config.

Now if you suddenly are prompted again to save a new config and wonder why ("I just did that!"): this is because, as I said above, there are THREE configs for each device! So if you (without knowing it) edited an Airplane control and saved an Airplane config you might (without knowing it) edit a General control a minute later: MSFS2024 will see that and ask you to save a config again but this time it will be a General config!

Instead of editing the default configs (and getting prompts like just mentioned) you could also NOT start editing right away. Instead, click on a cog wheel to the right of a config and you will see various options:

1. Duplicate: you will copy the currently selected config, give it a name and save it. This way you will prevent being prompted as stated above. You can then edit anything you want.

2. Rename: let's you rename a saved config.

3. Apply to all aircraft: not really sure about this one but apparently (some) configs won't work with any aircraft just like that and you can take care of this here. I guess.

4. Set as default: no need to explain that one. It's important to make your created configs default (if you want to!) otherwise you will be using the MSFS2024 defaults again after a restart.

5. Clear: removes ALL assigned controls from the config. Very interesting one for people (like me) who want to get rid of all assignements and start with a completely clean config. Really great if you want to totally change your controller assignements and do not want any default ones!

6. Delete: no need to explain that one.

I haven't used the Specific aircraft controls config myself but with this option you should be able to create a config for a specific plane. Like when you switch to a helo you will automatically get a different control scheme.

To unbind a control simply hover your mouse above it (which will highlight the control) and press Backspace. So much easier than in MSFS2020... as everything is so much easier and convenient in MSFS2024... once you know how it works. 😉

If you assign a control to a key or button which already has an assignement you will see a number appear next to it. This tells you how much other options use the same key or button. So if you see '1' that means there are 2 functions assigned to that key (1 besides the current one). The earlier mentioned Clear option may help to prevent seeing a LOT of numbers everywhere.

Finally (for now): I myself always create a list (using Notepad) of every controller change I make. Convenient for if you have to redo things in the future. Take note though that ALL configs are saved in the cloud and will be automatically restored whenever you need to reinstall MSFS (like on a new computer).

Edited November 22, 20241 yr by mistolip

Thank you. I'm totally lost with the new Controls GUI. My X52Pro (Satek/Logitech) is a complete mess. Not even Throttle LeftZ and other axes work correctly. But MS2024 indicates it recognizes my H.O.T. Why can't it import the settings from MS2020? The same is true with keyboard settings.

It took me quite a while to set my controls in MSFS2020, but now I don't know if I can succeed in the new Sim. It's way too complicated, and I'm not a computer dummy.

Edited November 22, 20241 yr by Nemo

why did they change it?  And why does every aircraft has 3 configs?  I know default, but then you create your own

@mistolip "More about this later on."

When? Please?
I can't find any documentation on the three categories"

Excellent tutorial!!!

Big Thanks You!!!

28 minutes ago, Area said:

@mistolip "More about this later on."

When? Please?
I can't find any documentation on the three categories"

Here:

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/16459737949980-Controller-Settings-FAQ

59 minutes ago, Area said:

@mistolip "More about this later on."

When? Please?
I can't find any documentation on the three categories"

I meant later on in the post... 😉

1 hour ago, wan2fly99 said:

why did they change it?  And why does every aircraft has 3 configs?  I know default, but then you create your own

Because people wanted it. Up to now you needed 3rd party software to create configs for specific planes or situations. Now 2024 has this by default!

I was reading and it sounds confusing 

It is what it is

Thanks