Hi folks! So, I’ll teach how to make Citra Edge on Windows very user friendly for people that, like me, likes to play it with the Couch/TV/Controller combo. We already have a Controller guide and a Full Screen guide, so the next step is creating a neat dashboard to play your games.
Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need Controller/Full screen to get my guide working. All we are doing is creating shortcuts to auto play your game. The mouse/keyboard combo will work like a charm as well.
I’ll teach how to do that with Steam, as I believe it’s the simplest and most used gaming tool these days. Beside, you’ll have some perks (Big Picture Mode for Controllers, Screenshot keys, custom banners and your friends being able to see what you are playing).
BTW, my only merit was to gather the information and add a few extras. All credits goes to JayFoxRox for figuring out how to get shortcuts working.
Steam Shortcuts for Citra
Open Steam and go into your game library. Click on ADD A GAME on bottom left and press on Add a Non-Steam Game.
You will be asked to choose a program. Choose anything. You’ll edit it right away. After creating the shortcut, right click it and go to properties.
Change the target to this location. Don’t forget to make the highlighted changes to match with your pc (copy " as well):
"C:\Users\ Your Username\AppData\Local\citra\Update.exe" --processStart=citra-qt.exe "-a=\"C:\ Your gamepath\ Your Game.3ds\""
You will also need to change the start in location. Use this model:
"C:\Users\ Your Username\AppData\Local\citra\"
You can also change the name and the icon. The icon isn’t that important if you plan on using Big Picture Mode (the one for controllers). However, I do recommend adding a custom banner. To do that, change your view to grid. It’s on the top right section.
Right click your game and set a custom image. PNG and JPG works fine. Steam banners are 460 x 215 pixels, so find an image that match that proportion.
Repeat this process with your favorite games and that’s about it. By clicking on it, Steam will open the latest installed build and auto load the game. With full screen enabled and a controller config, you’ll have an instant gaming experience anytime.
There is, however, a catch: these shortcuts don’t update Citra if a new version is available.
That means that you'll have to open the official Citra Edge shortcut from time to time in order to update your build. You can either open it the normal way or set a steam shortcut and use your controller. If you choose the shortcut, use this target (the start in path is the same as before):
"C:\Users\ Your Username\AppData\Local\citra\Update.exe" --processStart "updater.exe"
4) Extras
Here are two little extras that can improve your experience depending on your personal preferences:
-
Black background: Open qt-config.ini on \AppData\Roaming\Citra\config. Change this section on [Renderer] from 1 to 0:
bg_red=0
bg_green=0
bg_blue=0
-
Ultra wide Layout: For 21:9 monitors, open qt-config.ini on \AppData\Roaming\Citra\config and change the entire [Layout] to:
layout_option=-1
swap_screen=false
custom_top_left=0
custom_top_top=0
custom_top_right=1667
custom_top_bottom=1000
custom_bottom_left=1667
custom_bottom_top=330
custom_bottom_right=2567
custom_bottom_bottom=1000
custom_layout=true
That’s it! Hope that it helps! 
