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Windows Microsoft

Windows 11 Will Soon Control Your RGB Lighting For PC Gaming Accessories (theverge.com) 119

Posted by BeauHD from the natively-supported dept.
Microsoft is working to bring native support for RGB PC gaming accessories to Windows 11. The Verge reports: The Windows lighting experience will include the ability for PC gamers to configure accessories with RGB lighting without having to install third-party software. Twitter user Albacore has spotted early work for integrating this new lighting experience into Windows 11 in the latest public test builds of the operating system. Options for controlling brightness, lighting effects, speed, and colors can all be found in the settings interface of Windows 11. There's even a feature that will match your accessories to the Windows accent color.
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Windows 11 Will Soon Control Your RGB Lighting For PC Gaming Accessories More

Windows 11 Will Soon Control Your RGB Lighting For PC Gaming Accessories

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  • The Windows lighting experience will include the ability for PC gamers to configure accessories with RGB lighting without having to install third-party software.

    Embrace ...

    More seriously, in related news:

    Windows 11 Will Soon ...

    Whatever comes after those ellipses: No it won't, I won't be using Windows 11.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      Embrace ...

      as expected. windows has fulfilled it's obligations as a operating system more than a decade ago, but they gotta add new features to keep selling and "engaging" the user base. it's all fluff and they were running out. now they have finally taken notice that this rgb idiocy is actually important for a quantitatively significant part of the consumer base, so they go for that. albeit coming half a decade too late this makes total sense, unless you don't understand what windows is.

      Windows 11 Will Soon ...

      ... be windows 12 or somesuch.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

      Whatever comes after those ellipses: No it won't, I won't be using Windows 11.

      good for you, nobody cares, especially Microsoft

    • Re:Seems familiar. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @12:35AM (#63291165) Journal

      So let me preface this with the following disclaimer: RGB lighting of internal components is stupid, get off my lawn, etc.

      That being said, all of the software involved in it, is a shit show, inside a train wreck, where the train was carrying dumpsters and tires, which are now on fire.

      The software is universally terrible, wildly proprietary even when the hardware is mostly on a standard interface, buggy AF. They are usually things that only run inside of a Windows user session, so until login many components are just doing whatever the factory default is, and none of it synchronizes. And lord help you if you have light-up RAM from a different vendor than your light-up motherboard, your light-up GPU, your light-up fans, your light-up CPU cooler, and your light-up case - unless it all comes from the same manufacturer you'll NEVER get it all working together, and stay working together. And that's in the absolute best case, while running Windows.

      Take Windows away, and it all just sits there in it's rainbow unicorn vomit defaults unless you figure out some way to turn it off through firmware, or physically unplug the lighting (if that's even an option) or pay more money to replace it with non-RGB lighting components, if you can actually find any.

      So if Microsoft wants to embrace, extend, and eliminate this particular cesspool of money-grabbing "feature" development from hardware vendors, I say go for it, because it can't possibly be worse than it is right now, unless we just turn back the clock a couple years to when the hardware wasn't even standardized and each motherboard manufacturer had some different shitty pinout that didn't match any of your other shit.

      • I generally agree, however there is already something that works before Windows login, and that is the ecosystem from Aquacomputer. They were smart enough to have a hardware controller which saves its settings locally, and once configured, you can move it to another PC and it will work the same way, provided you connect wiring as before and to the same hardware components (probes, fans, pumps, RGB LED Strips).
        Some effects are software-dependent, though (e.g. sound-based effects), there is no way around that

        • So the solution to shitty software that comes with the hardware I already bought is to buy redundant hardware from a different manufacturer?

          I'd rather we just get software that isn't completely inadequate and terrible.

          • Aquacomputer's hardware does support 3rd party LED strips. They even sell adapters for it.
            Of course, not all RGB solutions are supported, e.g. RGB memory which don't have a separate connector, but pretty much anything with an ARGB connector is supported.
            And their products also offer hardware fan controlling.

            In the end, you have to pick your poison, but personally, I'd rather have a unique controller with an (optional after configuration) unique piece of software, rather than 5 bad software solutions which a

      • If someone really needs to rice out their computer like that, how about they install regular, dumb tri color LEDs for everything and wire it to a control board of their own making. Best if it's one with old fashioned knobs and switches and smart "nothing", or maybe a Raspberry PI if they want to get all disco and fancy.

        Just a basic electronics course which can be done online through simply watching videos is all it takes.

        But if instead they want the micro internet of shit to do it
        all for the

        • Are you suggesting that people rip out the LEDs in their components and install their own? For things like the keyboard, GPU, motherboard, that is as bit more difficult.

        • So again, we have someone suggesting that the fix to terrible software, is to spend more money on redundant hardware and / or spend a whole bunch of time soldering together components to do something that already-purchased hardware can do, except for the shitty software that prevents it from working properly.

          Why not just fix the shitty non-functional software and skip the extra purchasing, soldering, etc.? And how will some hacked together shit you botched together in your garage be able to control the RGB

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Briareos ( 21163 )

        Der8auer over on YouTube recently gave away the "Worst RGB Software 2022" [youtu.be] awards, and the results fully support your conclusion about said software...

  • Anything that distracts them from fucking around with the kernel is a good thing.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      so you don't want the kernel to enjoy rgb. that's racist.

    • No no no. They already finished maiming the kernel ... and the Start menu, Explorer, Settings, etc.
      The RGB stuff is just a bonus, because they have so much spare time. Pray they do not change the icons and window decorations again.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      Don't worry, I'm sure this will be tied into the kernel so that updating your CPU fan lights will require you to reboot

    • Unfortunately, Microsoft is capable of doing more than one thing at once. They can write garbage RGB light widgets to embed right in the start menu next to everything else you don't want to see, all at once, while ALSO fucking around with the kernel.

      Shit, the kernel team might be the ones doing it because they got done with their kernel beshittification early and had an extra sprint or two.

  • native? as in something like directx? for it?

    How much hardware will work with there native system?

    • native? as in something like directx? for it?

      How much hardware will work with there native system?

      *their*

    • Why wouldn't you think that the hardware manufacturers wouldn't write a quick driver for currently supported stuff, with the promise of not having to ever write the universally shitty userland tools to control it?

      The manufacturers will love this, because it will reduce their costs - no more shitty tool updates to release because they just sewed together 1400 different javascript packages without actually auditing any of it, so it's an endless firehose of updates for patched trashware just to make lights bli

  • Can we get the storage drive light back please? I kind of like knowing when my SSD is doing stuff.

    B.O.T. I hope they call it Discotech or maybe Flashbox. Of course it won't work with Corsair products.

    • Can we get the storage drive light back please? I kind of like knowing when my SSD is doing stuff.

      B.O.T. I hope they call it Discotech or maybe Flashbox. Of course it won't work with Corsair products.

      Agreed. Having that flickering light allowed me to ask the question, "WTF are you doing? Nothing's being installed or downloaded. Why are you having a seizure?"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        Of course. That's why they removed it. It tattles on Windows when it's rummaging around spying on your system.

        No joke, I used to uninstall the specific patches to Windows 8.1 that added telemetry. One day I found it had been re-added by an update to my system when I noticed the hard disk light flashing while the system was idle and then I checked what the processes were doing and there is was.

        • I use Edge at work for some web sites that refuse to work with adblock/noscript. I think I had turned off all the sync options as useless and insecure. Today I get a "please restart Edge for updates" message, and once it came back I immediately got a "syncing to the cloud!" message which I don't recall seeing before. I looked, and every single syncing option had been turned on! No thank you, do not sync with my mythical other devices, this is proprietary and confidential work data.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by SeaFox ( 739806 )

            Sounds like your system is signed onto a Microsoft Account in some way. Since you said this is a work machine maybe with Office 365 for your workplace perhaps? I set up my home PC as Local Account Only to avoid that.

      • I suspect Microsoft lobbied long and hard to have that LED hidden, they don't want customers to realize just how much computer resources they keep stealing.

        When I used to see lots of disk activity I would open up Task Manager and then suddenly the flickering would stop. There's be a bit of Windows tasks with odd names using CPU but only for a second or two. I swear they designed something in Task Manager that says "shh, calm down, the user is watching!"

        • windows 11 OOTB has this weird behavior where the cpu will spike to 7% usage when you don't touch a key for a while and drop to 0% the instant you hit a key. Some weird background task. Probably mining monero for M$$$$

          • Sounds like Compatibility Telemetry. Any time my computer starts running like shit Compatibility Telemetry is running in Task Manager. It really sucks that it can't be disabled.

            • I the past I think this was the file indexer. I normally turn that off but Windows cries when it's off. Later when I ran Windows 10 in a VM on a Mac where performance was very slow, I did notice that after any update it would run a high CPU task making the system unusable for 5 to 10 minutes. Turns that that Windows recompiles ALL of the .NET applications to native binary for a "better customer experience" (dumping JIT and going with the same mentality that says to load all of Office into RAM when loggin

      • I bought a CPU activity light from a gentleman on Teh Intertoobz, it was a circuit board with a circle of LEDs that âoespunâ at speed correlating with your (Pentium 2 era) CPU. I mounted the plastic lens from a siren over it, it looked awesome. Then I updated to a Core Duo or something and the lights spun so fast the were motionless and continuously lit :(

    • Hah, on my new PC they have the light for the storage drive. But... It's on the back of the case and not the front! (sigh)

    • I use Tray Status on my Windows machine for this purpose.

      https://www.traystatus.com/ [traystatus.com]

  • It always seemed to me like all that blinking and flashing [youtube.com] would be somewhat distracting while you're trying to game.

    My partner has a Razer Huntsman Elite, not for gaming but just because he wanted a mechanical keyboard with some weight to it and that old school clicky feeling. He keeps the lighting on because he thinks it looks cool, but if it was me I'd turn the lighting off. Personally, I think it looks better that way - all black, shrouded in darkness. That's what a gaming keyboard should be.

    • The lighting is so that you can find the mouse in the dark. I leave the lighting on my Roccat Lua on; it's solid blue to match the keyboard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )
        If only there were something [wikipedia.org] nearby that provided a light source to help you locate it. (I'm just giving you some light hearted grief, btw.)

        • I started turning down lights way back when I played Thief, where seeing dark gray on darker gray was important. Quite a lot of atmospheric games even today have a setup option to "turn down brightness until you can't see the logo anymore".

          A lot of these LEDs though are too bright. The backlight of the keyboard becomes more of an annoyance then a help.

          • I agree that the light level should be adjustable, or a least have the option of being turned off. But lit keyboards are actually useful for people who aren't perfect touch typists working in the dark. Yeah, it's very unlikely to be too dark in the room to not be able to find the mouse without it being lit up.
      • Just remember where you left it. My mouse pad is to the right of my chair and the mouse (when unused) sits in the middle.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by JeffTL ( 667728 )
      The lights can be useful in limited ways. A backlight can be nice in the dark, like on a MacBook. My Kinesis keyboard can blink or change colors when you hold down the function key, which can be helpful in knowing it's pressed (I suspect you can set up similar for other modifiers like Control or Command, but haven't really played around with that yet). The more elaborate effects do seem like they would be annoying and distracting for work or focused gaming, though.

      • I don't care what anyone says, in this the year 2023 if any keyboard is not backlit it's a hard pass for me. You can always turn it off but it's great when you need it.

      • Most of the fancy effects my keyboard has are used for one thing - "Hey, look at this neat effect! Cool, right?" And then I put it back to my default profile.

    • I'm very happy with a Das Keyboard 4 Professional. [amazon.com] It has Cherry MX Brown switches which are "good enough" for me.

      This thing is built like a tank and even has a detachable 16" plastic ruler on the underside.

      It even supports NKRO (N-Key Rollover) so it can be used for gaming as well! I didn't realize my old keyboard didn't support N-KRO until I got the Das keyboard.

      No stupid RGB lights either which I consider a bonus.

      Only downside is it is a bit pricey but given how long it should last the price should amo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nazrhyn ( 906126 )
        Max Keyboard [maxkeyboard.com] is another "peripheral" brand that makes tank-quality keyboards. I've had mine for ~6 years now and it's still working great. I also wouldn't ever get a keyboard without brown or brown-like switches. They're the most versatile.

    • It always seemed to me like all that blinking and flashing would be somewhat distracting while you're trying to game.

      I have a machine with RGB fans which I used it exclusively as a workstation. I bought it from a company more normally associated with gamer machines because they assemble well built, customised PCs with good GPUs using quality, standard parts. Comes with RGB because of course it does. Honestly I don't notice them while I'm working.

    • Blinking and flashing may be distracting, but having lit keys is pretty handy in the dark. It can also be informative - I have one RGB fan that's color coded for CPU load and my AIO radiator shows CPU temp. Ditto for my GPU, but I can't actually see its lights.

  • It can't be any worse than the native config tool for my Thermaltake stuff. I set it up. It works as desired for a few days. It reverts to default. I have to reboot to get the light working again.

    If I had it all to do over again, I would have skipped the stupid lights, but I just wanted one of those fancy computers with the glass door and the pointless lights inside, just because.

    It does look cool when it works. And yes, the lights are distracting as hell while gaming. I don't actually game much though. It

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      I just wanted one of those fancy computers with the glass door and the pointless lights inside

      I had the opposite experience. When I built my machine the only case I could buy that was relatively cheap and didn't look like something from a bad Transformers movie knock off had a side window. And the RAM I picked because of the price point has LEDs on it. I had to install Corsair's stupid application to shut the lights of. It's a 1+ GB monster that did nothing but hog resources and turn the LEDs off, so it got removed. Now I have to choose between lights that I can't shut off, or an application ne

      • One small bottle black enamel paint, one small paint brush -> no LED distractions w/o software.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Pascoea ( 968200 )
          Now that it's been a while, and my warranty is expired, that seems like a decent enough solution. However, the choices shouldn't be "Bloated crapware", "voided warranty", or "annoying lights"

  • Desperately looking for something to do (Score:5, Funny)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday February 13, 2023 @07:59PM (#63290745)

    It kinda feels like they're really desperate to give Win11 some sort of reason to exist.

  • "Microsoft adds more pointless crap to Windows that will affect people that have nothing to do with it". In other news, new BSOD tracked down to PC light controls that only crash PCs with no light controls. Yes yes, please more bloat. We need to get Windows 12 so that it requires 1TB of space just for the install and more things that remote hackers can control.

  • "I'm sorry Bob. You can't increase the luminoscity of your keyboard backlight because of the environmental restrictions."

    • More like "Please validate your Windows installation to enable RGB lighting controls."

      With "validate" meaning "enable the telemetry for the damn OS or you get stuck with whatever we feel like setting your RGB lighting to." I fully expect there to be a Windows Update that messes with the RGB lighting settings for anything that uses the "new shiny API."

  • I don't have any friends who'd come over and say "wow" if my keyboard looked like a nyan cat travelling across the sky. In fact, I don't have any friends at all.

    • Oh ya, a keyboard like that is just an invitation for the cats to jump up and try to have a nap on it.

  • I mean, I like standards for hardware communication, but this is not something that should be OS level (yet) because there is NO standard for communicating with RGB and other decorative elements.

    These are also not things that are used by MOST of the computing world...

    When the standards are established and it's more common than a niche of a niche of computer use; this particular feature should stay driver and userland software level.

    • I mean, I like standards for hardware communication, but this is not something that should be OS level (yet) because there is NO standard for communicating with RGB and other decorative elements.

      I hate to say it, but my hope is that the Windows 11 control will be enough incentive for Corsair and MSI and everyone else to start improving their software. The current release of iCUE is 1.1GB. Yes...over a gigabyte to control some LEDs and record keystroke macros...that should be 10-20MB, not larger than the install media for Windows XP. That is a massive amount of software bloat, and everyone who does RGB control is guilty of it.

      If Windows' capability to control Corsair LEDs means that some people use

      • "The current release of iCUE is 1.1GB. Yes...over a gigabyte to control some LEDs and record keystroke macros.."

        I *REALLY* want to see the teardown of that software. I want to know what's hiding in all that bloat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zdzichu ( 100333 )

      Maybe Microsoft will define some generic RGB controlling protocol? This will force manufacturers to implement the protocol, making life of OpenRGB easier.

  • Has officially jumped the shark. Silly me, I thought it was when Win 10 was introduced. Nope, this right here .. This .. Right .. Here ..
  • If they can give me settings that indicate Caps Lock and Num Lock, that would be nice. Keychron gives me a huge number of color and color pattern possibilities, but no simple indication for Caps Lock or Num Lock (or Scroll lock, but that key is absent and not missed) like keyboards had 20 years ago.
    • I would never buy a keyboard without a caps lock or num lock indicator (again). My current keyboard doesn't have a num lock light and it bugs me to no end (is it on or not? let me push a button to find out - yep it's in the wrong setting).

      At least it has a scroll lock button, I use that to put the monitor to sleep. I wish manufacturers would stop subtracting buttons and features ffs, this isn't GNOME.

  • Mark my words as 640Kb will not be enough.

  • My brand new build is pulsing like some 15 year old's fever dream - and there's no option in the BIOS to turn it all off. WTF. Now I have to either pull the plugs, or get some mdma, a couple of glowsticks, and cancel my plans for the next couple of days.

    Good lord.

  • rgb lighting controls you

  • But when can I get my T-Rex Penis Enhancement?

  • So I'm using wled ( https://github.com/Aircoookie/... [github.com] ) on an esp8266 to act as an adalight serial receiver/driver for some ws2812b addressable RGB LEDs around my monitor, but the state or third party software for the screen capture and updating the LEDs is so bad, there is Hyperion which just kinda works... sometimes, and Prismatik which also works sometimes but not if the serial gets disconnected for any period of time. OpenRGB has potential but doesn't seem to do what I want, will Microsoft finally come
  • alone is vastly greater than the number of lines of code required to implement RGB control with a sub 1$ microcontroller. Strange how the human element can make simple things into something so complicated.

  • ...Instead of Fixing Windows 11 (Score:3)

    by BrendaEM ( 871664 ) on Tuesday February 14, 2023 @11:09AM (#63291841) Homepage
    Windows 11 is a mess, and they are working on grabbing control over gaming lighting. WTF?

  • It's common for the software to cause stutter in VR.

  • Having your operating system control your lighting is stepping way beyond mission boundaries. No wonder we have to buy more hardware in order to run a bloated OS.

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