Have you looked at your User Manual? Do you have a keyboard with back lighting? The image below is for my Dell Laptop.
Backlit keyboard
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(313.6, 2%, 40%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMT%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Michael Teer
0
Reputation points
I've seen suggestions on turning on the backlit keyboard, using Fn and F7. That hasn't worked for me. How do I turn on my backlight for my keyboard?
Surface | Surface Pro | Performance and maintenance
3 answers
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(48, 20%, 14%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EJ%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Jeric 1,685 Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-08-17T14:01:54.9933333+00:00 Hi Michael,
Could you please specify the Surface device you were using? On most Microsoft Surface devices, you can control the keyboard backlight using specific key combinations, though the exact keys may vary slightly depending on the model. Commonly used combinations include Fn + F1, F2, or F3, where F1 decreases brightness, F2 increases brightness, and F3 may turn off the backlight on certain models. Pressing Fn + Spacebar toggles the keyboard backlight on or off. On some Surface Pro models, pressing F5 (with or without Fn) cycles through brightness levels: Off, Low, Medium, and High. For Surface Go Type Covers, the F7 key is used to adjust brightness.
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Michael Teer 0 Reputation points
2025-08-21T16:13:48.42+00:00 It's a Surface Pro 7. The sun icon is on the F7 key, but FN + F7 doesn't turn on the keyboard backlight.
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Barb Bowman 78,580 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator2025-08-17T14:48:40.6033333+00:00 On the newer Surface devices, the F5 key cycles through 4 levels of backlighting. You may have to toggle the Fn key (older models used F7)