Software

Software support for the AQIRYS Aludra TKL comes in the form of a device-specific driver whose installer can be found in the downloads section of the product page. The latest version at the time of testing was V1.02n, which downloads as a compressed archive with the installer executable ~22 MB. The installation is straightforward, but there is no option on whether you wish to have a desktop shortcut or start menu item. Both of these are preemptively selected for you. The final install takes a little over 50 MB, which is not too surprising since the software is only for this product, and it is light on system resources when running, too.


With the keyboard connected to my PC, the software drivers recognized it immediately. In fact, opening the software for the first time was enough for me to tell that this is a common OEM software solution with a different skin I have seen many times before. Poor scaling with high DPI displays and the UI were easy giveaways, and most of my complaints previously are valid here, too. I had to switch to 1080p resolution, forcibly close the software, re-open it as an admin to get it to scale properly, and then go back to 4K to keep the software window large enough to actually use without the rest of my system looking terrible. Of course, this only works as long as you have the program running in the foreground or minimized to the system tray. There is also no maximize option, with the maximum resolution closer to 720p. Given no other products are supported by this program, the home page is that for the Aludra TKL with an on-screen render and various menu items above.

Above is a walkthrough of customizing the Aludra TKL keyboard with its dedicated software tool, which includes the option to easily create, remove, and select software profiles. The settings tab is sparse, mostly used to change the UI text color. The default tab pertains to key mapping, and you have plenty of options to choose from here, including key combinations, mouse functions, program shortcuts, and macros. It's not that polished though, and you will also have to start from scratch for any changes. The lighting section is part self-explanatory, part frustrating. There are plenty of static, dynamic, and reactive lighting effects to choose from, all with sub-options pertaining to color, speed, direction, and brightness as applicable. There is no virtual keyboard though, so you need to refer to the actual keyboard to see what is going on. Likewise, per-key lighting is somewhat finicky as you need to have the specific color from among 16.8 M options pre-selected before using the configurator on the virtual keyboard that only appears here. Side lighting and backlighting effects are generally coordinated, but the software only remembers the last thing it did. Indeed, you need to rely on onboard controls for anything more customized as it will just keep playing the same dynamic effect as set in the software for all LEDs. There's also a game mode with appropriate key functions, and the macro recorder works well and has enough customization options post-recording to satisfy anyone's needs.