Windows FAQ

It is recommended that you check General FAQ first before continuing.

Also check out Windows App Specific FAQ for app-specific instructions.

My tablet is supported but not detected?

Read General FAQ first before continuing below if you haven’t already.

Driver Cleanup

If your tablet is connected properly and is supported but is still not detected, please make sure that you have no other tablet drivers on the system.

To ensure your system is clean, follow the instructions in TabletDriverCleanup, then resume here.

Please check if your tablet requires WinUSB here (it will say in the Notes column). If it does, follow the instructions and return here. Continue below for troubleshooting instructions if your tablet still isn’t detected.

Common Problems

Check logs for any errors or warnings. If you find any, try finding for a match and its accompanying solution below:

Tablet driver interference

Symptoms:

Another tablet driver found: <driver>

Solution:

  • Follow the instructions in TabletDriverCleanup, and make sure to type Y for every driver found by the utility. Then, restart OTD.
  • If the log entry is still present, try joining our support Discord and asking for help in the #support-windows channel.

Invalid WinUSB driver state

Symptoms:

Failed to open file handle to WinUSB interface
SafeHandle cannot be null. (Parameter 'pHandle')

Solution:

  • Restart your computer.

Tablet is detected but not working?

No input

This is most likely due to some firmware variation. Try joining our support Discord and asking for help in one of the #support channels, or submit a bug report in GitHub.

No pressure

OpenTabletDriver has no built-in support for pressure on Windows due to external dependencies that cannot be bundled with the driver. Follow the instructions below to enable pressure support:

  • Install VMulti Driver.
  • Install and follow instructions from WindowsInk wiki.
  • Configure your application to use Windows Ink API. See here for app-specific configuration instructions.

How do I make a portable install?

By having a folder called userdata next to the OpenTabletDriver files, anything related to OpenTabletDriver is instead stored in this folder.

Having a portable install is useful for testing new releases without them affecting your existing settings and plugins, or for having the driver available with your preferred settings and plugins you can send to friends, or bring with you.

It is particularly important to use this feature when testing pre-releases, as cross-version configuration compatibility is not guaranteed.

The default location is described in the General FAQ’s appdata section

If you wish to convert your existing install to a portable install, the convert_to_portable.bat script moves OpenTabletDriver’s settings to the userdata folder.

How to fix “Connecting to daemon has timed out” error?

Check if OpenTabletDriver.Daemon.exe and OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe is in the same folder. This should be the case if the Installation instructions were followed correctly.

If both files are in the same folder, the daemon may have crashed during launch.

  • Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
  • Type %localappdata%\OpenTabletDriver then press Enter.
  • Delete or rename settings.json to settings.json.bak.
  • If problem persists, try also renaming Plugins folder to Plugins.bak.

If you converted OpenTabletDriver to a portable install, go inside the userdata folder instead.

How to autostart OpenTabletDriver on boot?

The following is just one of the multiple ways that you may launch OTD at startup.

  • Right click OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe and select Create shortcut.
  • Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
  • Type shell:startup then press Enter.
  • Move the shortcut you created earlier to the folder that opened.

To start OpenTabletDriver minimised, continue below:

  • Right click the shortcut and select Properties.
  • In the Run dropdown, select Minimized.

I get a warning about not running it as Administrator on startup?

OpenTabletDriver should NEVER be run as Administrator, and there is never a need to run as Administrator.

Follow the instructions provided by Windows and adjust protection level to at least:

  • Notify me when apps try to make changes to my computer.

Then restart your computer to apply.

If you are still getting the warning, make sure that you are not using the account called Administrator. This is NEVER meant to be used as a normal account for daily use. Create a new normal account with administrator privileges and use that instead.

We are aware that most custom ISOs use the Administrator account. Due to the nature of custom ISOs, we do NOT provide official support to them.

If you need to interact with a program that runs with Administrator privileges, use VMultiMode.

Plugin manager is not showing up

It is likely because you are running OpenTabletDriver with the Administrator account. See above.

OpenTabletDriver is completely blank

If you are experiencing random crashes with no warning, or the interface is completely blank and/or not accepting input, and you have RivaTuner Statistics Server installed, it may be hooking into OpenTabletDriver and therefore prevents OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe from functioning correctly.

If you are using RivaTuner Statistics, make sure it doesn’t hook onto OpenTabletDriver by blacklisting it in its settings.

  • Open RivaTuner Statistics Server.
  • Click on the Add button, found in the bottom left corner.
  • Locate OpenTabletDriver.UX.Wpf.exe on your computer, then select it. Refer here for more information.
  • Click on Application Detection Level then select None.

Still have problems?

If you are still encountering problems with OpenTabletDriver, it will be easier to help you over in our Discord server. We will guide you in doing certain debugging steps and will give you different instructions to help resolve your problem.