I have recently read a few posts on other blogs and forums, discussing an ‘annoyance’ of not being able to disable the ‘fade-out’ or time-out period of the keyboard back-lighting after one minute of no keyboard or mouse activity. However, what most don’t realise, is the option is available… just buried.
I am using Windows 7, so I would assume the following steps would be more applicable to Vista, but not so much Windows XP.
This is also based on a Dell Studio 15 and Dell Studio XPS 16 laptops so I can’t guarantee it applies to all Dell Laptops with back-lit keyboards/touchpads.
- Open Windows Mobility Center (Just search it in the start menu, it only appears on portable devices such as laptops).
- You should be presented with a screen like below. Notice as Quickset is installed, a few extra options have appeared at the bottom of the window.
If you do not see the Customized section by Dell, download Quickset from the Support and Drivers section of the Dell website.
- While the ‘Keyboard Brightness’ panel only shows a slider bar, notice the small Laptop & Keyboard icon just above the slider is pressable (focused in the screenshot above).
Clicking this will open a new dialog box like the screenshot below, with more customization options for the keyboard back-lighting.
- You can now adjust the time-out for the keyboard lighting in-activity fade out. Adjust the time interval by selecting it from the drop down menu, or specify “Never Off” to set an infinite timeout period.
- Let us know if this works for your Dell laptop.
