How To Change The Keyboard Color On An MSI Laptop

Gaming laptops allow players to take their battle stations with them just about anywhere. These laptops often focus on graphics, capabilities, and features that mimic the full PC experience on a smaller device. For this reason, gaming laptops have largely been focused on recreating that experience, with the best gaming laptops offering high-end GPUs, plenty of storage for AAA game files, 4K displays, and plenty of ports.  

Another feature that should never be overlooked is the keyboard. This is an important component of a traditional PC setup, with gamers preferring ultra-responsive keys, customizable key mapping, and comfort for long gaming sessions. Another aspect of gaming keyboards that has become a staple in all the top models is backlit designs. One gaming laptop brand that includes backlighting as a major part of its keyboard design is MSI. 

MSI's gaming laptops include RBG lighting — which means LED lights that combine red, green, and blue to create a wide variety of colors — and translucent keycaps on the most-used keys (WASD, arrows, the power button) so players can see them easier, no matter what the lighting is like in their gaming room. Is your MSI laptop's keyboard color not turning on, or you can't figure out how to change it? Here's how to set it up and start grinding.

MSI sells a huge range of electronics, including laptops, desktops, graphic cards, and motherboards. Some of the gaming laptops in their massive collection unfortunately don't support RGB backlighting. Some only have a white light (good for visibility, but more practical than cool-looking) or none at all. 

You can find out if your laptop has this capability by going to MSI's official website, ensuring you're on the homepage, and then locating the magnifying glass icon located in the top-right corner. When you click this, you'll be able to open the search bar, where you'll put your specific laptop's model name. 

Once you've found the laptop you're looking for, click "Specification." Here, you'll see the product's keyboard features. Keyboards with this feature will include "RGB Backlight Keyboard" or "Per-Key Backlight Keyboard" in the keyboard details. If you don't see either of these, the laptop doesn't support RGB backlight.

If your MSI laptop does support RGB lighting, you can then change the colors and layout within its control app. While you're still on your gaming laptop's MSI page, click on "Support." Select your exact model from the dropdown menu, click "Utility," and find your operating system. Here, you'll be able to see which app you need to control the lighting and download it.

It's straightforward to change keyboard color settings from here. Open the downloaded control app for your laptop model, and you'll be able to create a new configuration. You can name the configuration and then choose effects, color, and even use the pin icon on the left to select the keys you want to apply each effect and color combo to. Click save when you've got it to your liking. The control app allows you to save multiple configurations. 

If the MSI laptop doesn't have its own control engine, you can adjust the lighting effects within the MSI Center. Open this program, click "Utility," and then find "Mystic Light." Select the default keyboard, and you can adjust the effects, color, speed, and keys. This level of lighting customization makes MSI's gaming laptops some of the most fun and effective for casuals and competitive players alike.