Control your PC with your feet using Elgato’s Stream Deck Pedal, now $51

Elgato’s Stream Deck (not to be confused with Valve’s Steam Deck) is popular among game streaming pros, podcasters, and anyone who just wants a bank of neat little customizable LED buttons that activate various stuff on their “battlestation.”

The Stream Deck Pedal is not a Stream Deck, but it is a pedal — one that lets you make your PC do all kinds of stuff with just your foot. And today, Best Buy is selling it for $50.99. That’s nearly $40 off.

I’m not going to pretend that this is a deal that everyone should run out and snag. It isn’t. It’s specifically for people who want an incredibly customized desktop setup, for people who feel that both hands and all available digits just don’t offer enough immediate control.

Here are some ideas for what you can do with the Stream Deck Pedal’s buttons. And yes, every one of these is possible:

• Mute and unmute your microphone in video meetings so you don’t annoy your coworkers.
• Cycle through virtual backgrounds for video meetings so you do annoy your coworkers, by switching from Tahiti to the forest moon of Endor three times every second.
• Scroll up and down through a teleprompter script in Elgato’s camera software without moving your fingers.
• Set the pedal to activate that one infrequent macro you only occasionally need in World of Warcraft.
• Activate a bunch of different tools in Photoshop. (Oh dang, that’s something I might actually use!)
• Do a bunch of stuff on Twitch and Discord. (I don’t know what — I use neither of them myself — but you definitely can.)
• Switch between cameras or activate connected lights.
• Bind the pedal to a bass drum sound so you can pretend you’re playing along to “Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes.
• Train your dog to press the pedal and activate a notification whenever they want a treat (then ignore them because they keep barfing up said treats on the carpet).

All joking aside, this really is a good deal on a tool that’s somewhat niche but very well-thought-out. Elgato made it nice and heavy with a grippy surface (so it doesn’t slide around), and you can bind it to activate specific profiles based on what software you currently have active.

I just bought one myself because I can’t resist adding goofy stuff to my work-from-home setup. I am not ashamed. Okay, I’m a little ashamed.