As of today (December 2023), steam has officially discontinued support for the steam controller internal configurator. Because of this, many functions related to setting up gamepads and steam controller stopped working properly. For example, the "bind controller" button in the current version of steam does not work at all.
Steam technical support says that it is not going to fix this in any way and offers to download the so-called "update tool".
However, I tried to use it, but for me it only made the situation worse.


Just in case, I'm attaching a link to "Official Steam Controller Update Tool"

I found a working method. All you need to do is install the old version of steam with the "configurator" of the gamepads, which is still working.

The most suitable steam version is from May 30, 2023. It is presented in this guide:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3039867754
Here is a link to the archive with this version from this guide: Old version Steam [mega.nz]

Next you need to:
1) Unzip the archive downloaded from the manual I shared.
2) Be sure to close steam if it works for you.
3) From the unpacked archive, run steam.exe and follow the usual login procedure.
4) Then go to settings and select "controller". Next, click on the "general controller settings" button. You should have a separate window - the gamepad configurator. After that, connect your controller via a USB cable. It should check in your list of controllers, and there you can interact with it.

If for some reason you cannot launch the old steam from the unpacked folder, try to completely delete the steam you already have.
But I have tried my method listed above several times and I assure you, if you do everything right, then this should not be necessary. Just make sure that it is completely closed before opening the old steam from the downloaded folder.

An important point. After you complete everything (it is advisable to reset your controller to factory settings, then install the latest firmware version, as well as bind a USB key, if you have one), you can safely use the current version of steam, it should work flawlessly. But be sure to delete the steam shortcut on the desktop and create a new shortcut from the folder of your current steam version. Because the steam shortcut has been updated to the latest version of the running steam.

For your convenience, I tried to record the screen, to be honest, I'm not a pro at this, but I hope it helps you!

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3123148068