General Illumination

IO Center Desktop and IO Center Web

The General Illumination settings allow you to select and configure several lighting modes. 
You can fully customize the colors by clicking on the color field or “CHANGE”. 
To add the current color to your presets, which you can use for any color selection in IO Center, first configure the color settings and then click the “BOOKMARK” icon. 
Most effects have settings for direction and speed as well, allowing you to further customize the effect.

Custom Illumination

IO Center Desktop 

In Custom Illumination mode, you can set up the lighting effects per key in up to 7 layers. To get started, click the “+” icon to add a layer, then select the keys you want to apply your first effect to. You can draw a box around the keys or use SHIFT and CTRL to add or remove LEDs from the selection. 
When you are happy with the selected keys, you select and configure the lighting effect. 
Effect layers can be renamed and you can drag them up or down. The highest layer takes priority over other layers that may have an effect selected for its assigned keys. The only exception is the single-color reactive effect, which will show the effect underneath until the key is pressed. 
Custom lighting effects require IO Center to run in the background. 

Dynamic Lighting

IO Center Desktop

Dynamic Lighting is a unified LED control system for supported RGB devices by Microsoft Windows 11. When enabled, Dynamic Lighting overwrites the lighting settings of IO Center. 
To configure the Dynamic Lighting settings, we provide a link in the respective tab to open the Windows Dynamic Lighting settings window. 
Please note that Dynamic Lighting is only available on PCs with an activated license of Windows 11. 

Key Remapping (incl. Display Keys)

IO Center Desktop and IO Center Web
To change the default function of any key, simply select the key and choose a new function. The possible functions include many standard and special characters, media controls, mouse buttons, several Windows tools, lighting and macro controls, or even opening a specific file or starting a different application. In this tab you can also customize the Display Keys of our Dark Mount keyboard. When you select one of the Display Keys, you have the option to change the image of these keys with one of the presets or upload your own.

FN layer setup

IO Center Desktop and IO Center Web

“FN” stands for “function” and the FN key layer is active as long as the FN key is pressed. Every key can be given a secondary function here that is executed when you press designated key while holding down FN. 
Some keys, like the arrow keys, already have a predefined FN assignment for lighting control, which you can change. 
Only “R” (reset keyboard to default) and “Pause” (Game Mode) can not be given a customized FN function. 
When you press the FN key on your be quiet! keyboard, the keys with an FN function light up. 

Macros

IO Center Desktop

IO Center features a powerful macro editor. You start by clicking the “+” icon to add a new macro. Then, you select which devices are allowed to be recorded for your macro, for example if you only want to record inputs from your keyboard or mouse, or both. Before you start recording, you can also select the delay between key presses: Either you record the exact delay as you press the keys, remove any delay between key presses, or to set everything to the same delay. 
After you click “Start Recording”, each key press is recorded on the righthand side, until you click “Stop Recording”. The delays can be edited after recording and the order can be changed via drag and drop. 

Media Dock Setup

IO Center Desktop and IO Center Web 
The Dark Mount keyboard has a dedicated Media Dock Module. While you can reprogram the buttons to different functions in the key binding settings, everything else related to the Media Dock is configured here. This includes the color of the text and icons on the screen and the idle graphic. You can choose to display a clock as an idle screen, select one of the suggested images, or upload your own. 

Device settings & Game Mode

IO Center Desktop and IO Center Web

In the keyboard device settings, you can search for firmware updates and set up the keyboard’s Game Mode. Game Mode is activated by pressing FN + PAUSE and disables certain keys and key combinations that may disrupt your gameplay, if accidentally triggered. The combinations that are deactivated can be configured here. 
You can also reset your keyboard to factory default.

App Updates

When a new version of IO Center is available for download, you will get notified on startup. If you closed the notification window, you can go to the app settings by clicking the cog wheel icon in the bottom left and “Check for Updates”. 
After downloading, the installation wizard will guide you through the steps. In some cases, for example when the update makes changes to system registries, you may be prompted to reboot your PC. This is required to guarantee that all features of your devices continue to work as intended. 

Firmware Updates

Upon starting IO Center, a notification pops up, if new firmware versions for any of your be quiet! devices are available. You can either confirm the prompt to install the update right away, or close the window and start the update later from the device settings. The notifications screen will also show when updates are available. We recommend installing the latest available firmware for all be quiet! devices, but especially right after purchase you should install the latest updates. 

IO Center Desktop

If a device is not detected, or not detected correctly, please first try to reconnect the cable. If this does not work, please try a different USB port on your mainboard, or the front panel of your PC. Some of our devices, like the Dark Mount keyboard, have high power requirements and require a USB 3 port (usually blue, teal, or red) to function properly. 
In case the device is detected, but the settings are not available in IO Center, please run a firmware update. Some firmware updates are mandatory to ensure the device works properly with the latest software version. 
If none of the above works, please contact the be quiet! customer support. 

IO Center Web

If a device is not detected, please first click the orange “Find Device” button in the top right, and select your device from the list. If your device does not appear in the list, or is not detected correctly, please reconnect the cable. If this does not work, please try a different USB port on your mainboard, or the front panel of your PC. Some of our devices, like the Dark Mount keyboard, have high power requirements and require a USB 3 port (usually blue, teal, or red) to function properly. 
In case the device is detected, but the settings are not available in IO Center Web, please run a firmware update. Some firmware updates are mandatory to ensure the device works properly with the latest software version. 
If none of the above works, please contact the be quiet! customer support. 

Creating a Profile

To create an additional profile, you can click the “+” in the profile screen. The three-dot menu next to the name of the profile in the profile list opens several options, including to duplicate a profile, or to rename it. 
Additionally, if you connect a be quiet! device with stored settings, you will also be prompted whether you would like to create a new profile with the device’s settings. 

Deleting a Profile

Simply click the trash bin icon in the profile list to delete a profile. You can not delete your default profile. If you want to delete your default profile, you must first assign a different profile as default profile. 

Default Profile

Your first profile is the default profile and it can not be deleted. The default profile includes settings for all detected device and they can not be unassigned. To change your default profile, you must have at least one other profile. Select it and then check the box next to “Set as default profile”. You can also open the three-dot menu next to the profile name in the list and select “Make default”. 

Switching Profiles

To change your active profile, you have several options. If you have IO Center open, you can click on the profile you want to activate in the profile screen. The second option is to automatically load a different profile while a specific application is active. Lastly, you can remap a key or button on your device to either cycle through your profiles or load a specific one. 

Load Profile while Application is Running

You can set a profile to automatically load while a specific application is running. This can be used to set the mood with atmospheric lighting settings for a game, or to load macros that you use for video editing software. When the application is closed, the previously active profile will be loaded again. 
To set the application, click the area that says “Click to select file”, navigate to the folder of the application, and select it. 

Activate/Deactivate Devices per Profile

Apart from the default profile, which always includes settings for all devices, you can choose which detected be quiet! Devices the settings of each profile should apply to. Simply select and deselect the devices, while the profile is active. 

Importing/Exporting Profiles

All settings of a profile can be exported and stored in a file, which you can share with friends, or use to keep your settings when you get a replacement for a device. Click the three-dot menu next to the profile name in the profile list and select “Export”. Then, enter a name for the profile and “Save”. To import a profile, click the import button left of the “+”, navigate to the folder where the profile file is located, and click “Open”.