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Blog · 3 min

OpenRGB and SteelSeries: lighting in your desktop colour

SteelSeries has its own app, GG, and it lets nobody else touch the lighting. There is one way around it and it is free: OpenRGB. It takes the keyboard, mouse and mousepad under its control, and Vealo paints them in the theme colour and runs effects through it. The point is one app for every device at once: SteelSeries, Corsair, Logitech and the motherboard with one effect and one colour. Below is the whole setup and the one mistake that turns lighting into a strobe.

1

What you need and what to know

Three things: a SteelSeries device from the OpenRGB list, OpenRGB itself, and GG closed.

  1. Check your device in the supported list right here, the field below. Apex keyboards, Rival mice, QcK Prism mousepads and a number of other models are there, but not every revision.
  2. Close SteelSeries GG completely, from the tray, not with the window's cross. A device can have only one owner.
  3. Remove GG from startup, otherwise it grabs the lighting again after a reboot.
Start typing to search the device list.

When GG and OpenRGB run at the same time, two streams of commands with different LED layouts hit the device and the lighting starts flickering. That is not a defect, that is two owners.

2

Setting up OpenRGB

You do this once. After that OpenRGB starts with Windows, sits quietly in the tray, and Vealo finds the devices on its own.

  1. Download OpenRGB from the official site openrgb.org and install it.
  2. Open it, Settings, then General Settings, tick three boxes: Start At Login, Start Minimized and Start Server.
  3. Close the window. Make sure the device shows up in the OpenRGB list, if not, press Rescan Devices there.

Start Server is the box that matters: without it OpenRGB runs but nothing can talk to it, and Vealo will say so in the lighting section.

3

Turn on sync in Vealo

The app connects to OpenRGB by itself and checks the link every two seconds while lighting is on.

  1. Open Vealo, the Lighting tab, press Sync. The status line shows the devices it found.
  2. A device is missing, press Find devices: OpenRGB rescans the hardware without opening its window. OpenRGB is not running, the Start OpenRGB button brings it up.
  3. Pick an effect and a colour. By default the colour comes from the desktop theme and changes with it, your own colour is set with the eyedropper.
  • Theme colour. With the lighting colour set to the theme, change the theme or the wallpaper and the lighting recolours itself.
  • Per-LED effects. Wave, fire, rain and the rest travel along the keyboard by the index of each LED instead of one flat colour.
  • One tab for every brand. SteelSeries, Corsair, Logitech and the motherboard are painted from one place with one effect.
  • Free to try. Static and breathing are part of the free version, so you can test the connection on your own hardware before buying anything. The other effects are in Pro.

The full lighting guide for every brand, the device check and what to do when nothing lights up: All your RGB in one place.

Questions

The lighting flickers and changes colour on its own.

SteelSeries GG and OpenRGB are running at the same time and both send commands to the device. Close GG from the tray and remove it from startup.

OpenRGB is running, but Vealo says the server is off.

The Start Server box is not ticked in OpenRGB settings. Tick it and restart OpenRGB, or press Start OpenRGB in Vealo.

Vealo does not see the mouse while the keyboard lights up.

The device was plugged in after OpenRGB started, and it scans hardware once. Press Find devices in Vealo.

Do I still need GG for anything?

Not for lighting. If you use it for key binds or audio, run it without the Engine module, otherwise it takes the lighting back.

Does this work without Vealo Pro?

Yes. The connection, theme colour, static and breathing are free. The other effects are unlocked by Pro.

What else can Vealo do?

Quite a lot. It hides the desktop icons and opens everything from a panel, sets wallpapers and video wallpapers, adds widgets (clock, weather, calendar, notes, system load, player), desktop effects, lighting in the theme colour, cursors, and ready-made looks from the Steam Workshop. The full list is on the features page.

A clean desktop in one click

Try it on your own machine before you buy anything.

Free€0 · Forever

  • Hide, summon and search
  • All ready-made themes, Mono and Glass
  • Taskbar colour, light and dark system
  • All 128 wallpapers and video wallpapers
  • 6 widgets: clock, player, calendar, weather, system, notes
  • Rain effect, 2 cursors and the Roulette
  • Lighting: static and breathing
  • 2 sections and 2 profiles

Pro€2.99 · Launch price

  • Everything in Free
  • Theme from your wallpaper and custom colours
  • All effects, parallax and the sound visualizer
  • All cursors plus your own, all widget styles
  • All lighting effects
  • Glass transparency and neon
  • Unlimited sections and profiles
  • Wallpaper on the lock screen
Download freeGet Pro
Windows 10 / 11