# Why glfwGetJoystickName() return deferent name, in mac and windows

**URL:** <https://discourse.glfw.org/t/why-glfwgetjoystickname-return-deferent-name-in-mac-and-windows/800>\
**Category:** support\
**Created:** [November 11, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/why-glfwgetjoystickname-return-deferent-name-in-mac-and-windows/800 "2016-11-11T15:42:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lost206](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.glfw.org/lost206/32/70_2.png) [@Lost206](https://discourse.glfw.org/u/Lost206)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/why-glfwgetjoystickname-return-deferent-name-in-mac-and-windows/800/1 "2016-11-11T15:42:52Z")

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Hi i’m Yanai, from jp.  
First, sorry about my poor English.

Environment : **openFrameworks** 0.9.6 and 0.9.7 with **GLFW** 3.1

I use [this](http://www2.elecom.co.jp/peripheral/gamepad/jc-u3412s/) controller.

In mac.  
glfwGetJoystickName() return **“Elecom Wired Gamepad”**

On the other hand  
windows.  
return **“Microsoft PC-joystick driver”**

Am i missed something?  
Thanks for your help.

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**Author:** ![dougbinks](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.glfw.org/dougbinks/32/39_2.png) [@dougbinks](https://discourse.glfw.org/u/dougbinks)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/why-glfwgetjoystickname-return-deferent-name-in-mac-and-windows/800/2 "2016-11-12T13:53:26Z")

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Your English is fine, many thanks for taking the effort to post here!

There’s no guarantee that glfwGetJoystickName() will return the same name on different OSs as the device drivers are different. However in the Windows case this name does seem to be not very useful as it’s the name of the driver and not the joystick - looking into this on the net it appears that Windows makes it awkward to get hold of the actual OEM joystick name properly in some circumstances - I don’t know if this can be fixed but will take a look into it, though I may not be able to reproduce the problem.

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**Author:** ![elmindreda](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex035/user_avatar/discourse.glfw.org/elmindreda/32/26_2.png) [@elmindreda](https://discourse.glfw.org/u/elmindreda)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://discourse.glfw.org/t/why-glfwgetjoystickname-return-deferent-name-in-mac-and-windows/800/3 "2016-11-12T19:01:22Z")

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GLFW 3.2 provides better names for gamepads on Windows.
