Software

While being part of Dell no doubt has a lot of benefits, it also brings with it some red tape. I wish Alienware had just provided a direct link to the software installer on the product page, but instead you need to go to the Dell Support page, find the product, then go through the various options to find the installer which itself can be either via an auto-detect tool or a standalone service. To avoid the frustration, simply go to this page and download the full installer for the Alienware Command Center 6.x seen there. The other two drivers might be useful to you too, although I had no issues pairing the keyboard to my PC in wireless mode and there was no firmware update available at the time of testing. The latest version of Alienware Command Center 6.x—don't go for the older version which is for older hardware—is v6.2.7.0 at the time of testing and the installer is 640 MB in size. Installation too involves multiple steps, but is extremely thorough in making sure you know everything that is being installed or set up. The final install size is 550 MB if you only have the keyboard added, larger than I would prefer, but is otherwise light on system resources.


Depending on which side of the coin you prefer, the first time you launch Alienware Command Center will make you feel satisfied or frustrated again. You are prompted to create a user account and allow the drivers to scan your system for games to optimize/add, which some others such as ASUS, Razer, and Corsair also do, that can be useful for some and feel like bloatware for others in addition to sharing some data with Alienware/Dell/other 3rd-parties which I would personally never do. The good news is you can disable these prompts forever, so the home page then launches with the keyboard—provided it is already connected—showing up front and center. Clicking on the image or going to the tab on the left brings up the keyboard-specific settings. While there is no maximize option, the window expands to nearly the entire available space on your monitor display, so there is no issue in using the software regardless of your display resolution and Windows scaling level. It's a bug-free experience too, although I will say I've used Alienware Command Center in the past, so I do know what parts to ignore in the software too.

The video above goes through the general functionality of the software drivers, including the ability to select, modify, and save various lighting effects on a per-key basis with your choice of 16.8 M colors. I was somewhat underwhelmed by the lighting effects available though, with competitors having far more options as well as allowing for layers of lighting. Likewise, the key mapping section could be more extensive with not a lot of options here—the macro recorder is integrated in this. The general settings tab is fairly self-explanatory with some useful features that can also affect the battery life of the keyboard. Overall I do see scope for improvement, especially for power users, but also I do see the target audience perhaps only wanting to clicky set up their favorite lighting effect and calling it a day.