Why are Bluetooth game controllers all registering as player 1 on Windows 11?

I have three 8BitDo Pro 2 controllers (I doubt it matters what brand or controller) and they all register as player one when connected, so I can't play any multiplayer games because they all control the player 1 simultaneously. This has been going on for months and Windows 11 is not displaying my oldest restore points that might fix this. I have tried setting the pads to both D or X connection modes but neither work any better. All the pads light up as player 1 according to their LEDs. it does not matter what game, or platform, or emulator I put on, they all simply act as the same controller.

Question by Bricktop on Super User, licensed CC BY-SA. We show a short excerpt and link to the original thread as credit.