Adjust Keyboard Backlight on Windows

Posted on June 25, 2021 by - Windows, Windows 10

Here is how you can adjust Keyboard Backlight on Windows

Keyboards have been around for quite a while. While our smartphones and tablets might have moved on to touchscreens, the feel of typing on a hardware keyboard, with keys that you can actually touch and feel in your hands, is still hard to beat. For any type of core work, hardware keyboards are still the top preference. However, unless you are a keyboard ninja who can type away without having to look at the keys, a hardware keyboard can still have its drawbacks.

One of these drawbacks is that it can be a bit hard to see the keys in the dark. The solution? Backlit keyboards. Nowadays, almost every laptop, even the budget ones, come with a backlit keyboard option. But, what if you want to turn it down to save power? Or turn it up to the max? Or turn it completely off. The problem with Windows is that for some settings, it’s hard to know where to look.

In this article, we are going to guide on how you can adjust the Keyboard Backlight on your Windows machine.

Adjust Keyboard Backlight

Using the Windows Mobility Center

The first thing you should try is to use the Windows Mobility Center, which can be found inside the Control Panel. Here is how to access it,

  1. Press the Start button and search for Control Panel.
  2. Search for Windows Mobility Center and open it.
  3. Click on Keyboard Backlight.

Here, you will see several options, including a switch to turn it on/off, adjust the brightness, and even adjust a timer to turn it off after a certain period of inactivity.

If the above option didn’t work for you, your PC manufacturer might have a different way to adjust the backlight. Here are some options you can try,

For HP

Backlit keyboard key and fn keys highlighted

Press the Fn + F4 (or F5) keys to turn it on (whichever has the logo, as seen in the above image) . You can also refer to this guide on  HP’s portal. If this doesn’t work for you, your laptop might be an older model. Try googling your laptop’s model with the phrase “keyboard backlight”.

For Dell

Figure displaying the brightness gauge.

Press the Fn + F10 keys to turn it on. Repeatedly pressing it will switch between different backlight settings, from 0% (Off) to 25%, 50%, 75%, and then 100% (On). You can also refer to this guide on Dell’s portal. If this doesn’t work for you, your laptop might be an older model. Try googling your laptop’s model with the phrase “keyboard backlight”.

For ASUS

Pressing the Fn + F3 continuously increases the brightness of the keyboard backlight while pressing the Fn + F3 keys continuously decreases the brightness and ultimately disables the backlight. Please refer to this guide from ASUS’s website.

For Acer

Press the Fn + F9 keys to turn it off/dim it and Fn + F10 keys to turn it on/brighten it.