This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off change keyboard brightness automatically when lighting changes for all users in Windows 11.
In devices such as laptops that contain both a keyboard backlight and an Ambient light sensor, Windows supports automatic adjustment of keyboard backlight brightness. This feature is also supported for external keyboards when they are attached to devices with ambient light sensors.
Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness is distinct from Adaptive brightness for displays, but conceptually similar in its implementation.
If an input button is pressed while Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness is enabled, a temporary manual override of the autobrightness algorithm will be initiated. Once activated, the manual override bucket's brightness percentage is used until either:
- the ambient light reading crosses the bounds of the override bucket, at which point the override is cancelled, the override range is dismissed, and autobrightness control resumes using the bucketized ALR curve, or
- another input button press is received from the device, which prompts the host to adjust the brightness percentage and recalculate the manual override range according to the latest current ambient light reading.
Keyboard Backlight Implementation Guide
This topic provides implementation details for keyboard devices with backlights to be controlled by the host.
learn.microsoft.com
Contents
- Option One: Turn On or Off Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness in Settings
- Option Two: Turn On or Off Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness using REG file
1 Open Settings (Win+I).
2 Click/tap on Bluetooth & devices on the left side, and click/tap on Keyboard on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Under Keyboard backlight settings, turn on (default) or off Change keyboard brightness automatically when lighting changes for what you want. (see screenshot below)
4 You can now close Settings if you like.
You must me signed in as an administrator to use this option.
1 Do step 2 (on) or step 3 (off) below for what you would like to do.
2 Turn On Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_ON_change_keyboard_brightness_automatically_when_lighting_changes.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Lighting\Backlight]
"EnableBucketedBacklightAutobrightness"=dword:000000013 Turn Off Keyboard Backlight Autobrightness
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Turn_OFF_change_keyboard_brightness_automatically_when_lighting_changes.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Lighting\Backlight]
"EnableBucketedBacklightAutobrightness"=dword:000000004 Save the REG file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded REG file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 You can now delete the downloaded REG file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Last edited:
