Hi expert,

Are we talking about the same machine? My XPS 12 has no touch-sensitive buttons that I can see. It's http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-12-9q33/pd.

I'm usually in a location where there is plenty of ambient lighting, meaning there's no need for the keyboard backlight. While very useful when I need it, most of the time I want it off. It appears that the backlight defaults on because at every power on or restart it's lit. I hit Fn+F6 to turn it off, but that's a hassle to do each time. I don't see an option in the UEFI to set the backlight to default off, but it's entirely possible I just missed it. Is there an option to set it off?

Please use the steps below to disable the Ambient Light Sensor Control for Keyboard Backlighting:

1. Go to "C:\Program Files\Dell\QuickSet"
2. Open up "BacklitKB.exe"
3. Deselect "Enable Ambient Light Sensor Control for Keyboard backlighting"
4. Click OK

http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/bb/en/bbdhs1/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?c=bb&l=en&s=dhs&docid=612742

View this post at http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19430580.aspx

Hi EVANSHULTZ,

Some Dell customers go for the non-backlit keyboard option in the ordering process, I take it you got this as a gift? You can keyboard swap from Dell, get the non-backlit keyboard for your model.

OR

open windows mobility center by using the left most touch sensitive button near the power button. Under the "customized by Dell Inc." click on keyboard icon and select keyboard lighting to "off" mode.

Try this:
Boot to BIOS and look for "Ambient Light Sensor" section and turn off.

I still don't find any touch-sensitive key on my machine.

I also don't see any relevant options in the "BIOS" (actually UEFI).

However, I found the Windows Mobility Center by searching at the Start Screen and it allows disabling the ambient light sensor. That was what I wanted, as the keyboard doesn't automatically come on when the laptop is started and I can turn the keyboard backlight on manually if I want it.

Thank you!

By the way, I bought my XPS 12 at a brick & mortar store, so I didn't have the option to configure it.