Windows app
The control panel for your adapter.
You don't need anything installed to play. The app is for everything else: changing settings, testing the controller, and installing firmware updates when you tell it to.
Bought an adapter? Download here.
It’s the control panel for the Blipfrog Adapter. Without an adapter plugged in it opens, finds nothing, and that’s it. Have a look at the adapter if you don’t have one yet.
2.8 MB · Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit · SHA-256 a374f90d05e0823dd0aea2be15c8287c5802dc8df67a707d67267156f13133c6
Windows will warn you about it. That's expected.
It isn't signed with a certificate — those cost money every year and this is a one-person operation. So Microsoft Defender SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info, then Run anyway. If you'd rather check before running it, the SHA-256 above is this exact file — in PowerShell, Get-FileHash Blipfrog.exe prints yours to compare against.
What it does
Three things, then it gets out of the way.
Settings live on the dongle
Everything you change is written to the dongle itself, so it follows the adapter to any PC — even one that has never seen the app.
Firmware, handled
When there's new firmware, the app downloads it, checks it, installs it and restarts the adapter. No drive to find, no file to drag. And if an adapter stops showing up at all, it walks you through bringing it back.
A frog in the tray
Battery and signal at a glance, a nudge when the controller is nearly flat, and the panel one click away. It can start with Windows if you want it to — that's a switch in its menu, off until you turn it on.
Fair questions
Do I need this?
To play, no — the adapter works on its own. To change settings or update the firmware, yes.
How do firmware updates work in the app?
Plug the adapter in and turn your controller on — the adapter only shows up on your PC while a controller is connected. Open the app. If there's newer firmware, the Update tab says so and what changed; press Install it and leave the adapter plugged in. It takes about a minute, and your settings and paired controller stay.
Firmware older than 0.9.0 can't switch itself into update mode, so for that one hop the app asks you to triple-click the dongle's button. Nothing is ever installed on its own: the app checks and tells you, and waits for you to press the button.
Firmware 0.9.3 only works on a registered adapter. If the app says yours isn't registered, email support — it's a quick fix and nothing is damaged.
My dongle stopped working. Can the app fix it?
Almost always. Open the app and use Dongle not showing up? near the top. Pick Reinstall firmware to keep your settings, or Reset everything to also clear settings and paired controllers. The app asks you to unplug the dongle, hold its button and plug it back in; it does the rest.
The update mode that makes this work lives in the chip itself, not in the firmware, so no firmware problem can take it away. A copy of the current firmware is built into the app, so a repair works without an internet connection too.
What does it actually run on my PC?
One program of about 2.8 MB that sits in the notification area. It serves the panel to your browser from your own machine only (127.0.0.1) and refuses anything from a website. On the internet it talks to blipfrog.com and nothing else, to check for firmware, and every download is checked against the published SHA-256 before it goes near the adapter.
No account, no telemetry, no installer, no service, nothing in Program Files. Delete the file and it's gone, apart from a small cache of downloaded firmware in your AppData folder.
Will it touch other boards I have plugged in?
Not on its own. When a board in update mode is running something other than Blipfrog firmware, the app says what it found and leaves it alone unless you tell it otherwise — and it asks before replacing anything.
Does it start with Windows?
Only if you switch that on in its menu. Left alone it runs when you open it and stops when you quit it. With the switch on, it copies itself somewhere sensible first, so tidying up your Downloads folder won't break it, and stays quiet in the tray until an adapter turns up.
Mac or Linux?
Not yet — the app is Windows-only. The adapter itself needs no software to play and presents as a standard wired controller, so it may well work elsewhere, but we only build and test for Windows 10 and 11, so that's all we promise.
Something not behaving?
Email [email protected] and say what you're seeing. One person builds these and the same person answers the email.