MControlTray

A lightweight Windows system-tray controller for MSI laptops - without the heavy, self-updating MSI Center UI (DCv2.exe).

Right now it switches User Scenarios (Extreme Performance / Balanced / ECO-Silent) instantly from the tray. More MSI controls are planned - see the Roadmap.

Inspired by Linux's MControlCenter - this is a Windows take, going through MSI's own service rather than raw EC access.

MSI Center's DCv2.exe is large and tends to update/reinstall itself at the worst moments. But most of the time you only need to flip the User Scenario. This app does exactly that - from the tray, instantly, with a tiny footprint.

MSI Center's UI is a thin shell: clicking a User Scenario tile sends a small command over a localhost TCP socket to the MSI background service, and the service performs the real power/fan switch. This app replays that exact command.

• No administrator rights required - it's just a localhost message, exactly like MSI's own UI sends.
• It does not poke the Embedded Controller directly, and it does not bundle, modify, or redistribute any MSI code or binaries.
• It only needs the MSI Center background service installed and running (the stable part - you don't need the DCv2.exe UI open).

• Windows x64
• An MSI laptop with MSI Center installed (background service running)
• Prebuilt release: nothing else - a single ~1-2 MB native .exe, no .NET runtime needed (NativeAOT). Building from source: .NET 10 SDK + the Visual Studio C++ Desktop workload (the NativeAOT linker).

winget install Flakroup.MControlTray

(winget serves whatever version the community repository has already accepted, so it can lag a release behind - the newest build is always the manual download below.)

1. Download MControlTray-win-x64.exe from the latest release.
2. Put it anywhere and run it - an icon appears in the system tray.
3. (Optional) Autostart at logon: press Win+R, type shell:startup, and drop a shortcut to the .exe there.

• Tray icon - a colored circle showing the active mode (E / B / S). Left or right click opens the menu.

• Global hotkey - Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P cycles Extreme Performance -> Balanced -> ECO/Silent -> ... It is configurable (see below) and can be turned off.

• Single instance - launching the app while it is already running does not add a second tray icon: the running instance reports itself with a balloon and the new process exits with code 0. The guard is a per-session named mutex, so an unrelated program cannot keep the tray from starting.

• Command line (great for shortcuts / Stream Deck):

  MControlTray.exe --extreme
  MControlTray.exe --balanced
  MControlTray.exe --silent
  

  Exit codes: 0 switched, 1 the switch failed (is the MSI service running?), 2 unknown argument. A tray that is already running picks the change up, so its icon and the hotkey's cycle position stay in step with the machine.

%AppData%\MControlTray\config.ini is created on first run and can be opened straight from the tray menu. Restart the app after editing it.

A hotkey is system-wide, so the value is checked before it is registered: a letter or a digit needs two modifiers (Ctrl+C would take copy away from every application), a function key needs one, and F12 is refused because Windows reserves it for the debugger. Windows also reserves most Win combinations for itself and may refuse them.

If the combination is already taken by another application, or the file cannot be read or parsed, the tray says so with a balloon on startup and states which hotkey it actually registered.

The switch command was reverse-engineered and verified on:

• Board 15P2, Intel Core i7-14700HX, MSI Center 2.0.70

The TCP port is read from the registry (model-independent), but the scenario Index values and the receiver component id are currently hardcoded:

On other models these may differ. Verify yours like this:

1. Set the DWORD IsDebug = 1 under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MSI\MSI Center\Component\SDK (it is read live, no restart needed).
2. Open MSI Center and switch between your scenarios.
3. Open C:\ProgramData\MSI\MSI Center\Utility\Utility_<date>.txt and look for SendData >> lines. The JSON payload contains "Index":N - note which N maps to which scenario, and the DestID.
4. Delete the IsDebug value afterwards (it did not exist originally).

If your values differ, adjust the constants in Program.cs - issues/PRs with values for more models are very welcome.

• Endpoint: TCP 127.0.0.1:<port>, where <port> is the DWORD Server Port under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MSI\MSI Center\Component\SDK (MSI's hardcoded fallback is 32682).
• Frame: [DestID : int32 little-endian = 104][0x00][0x12][UTF-8 JSON]
• JSON: {"Index":N,"Performance":2,"Fan":0,"KB":-1,"PB":-1,"IsLoad":true}

The Embedded Controller byte 0xD2 mirrors the active scenario (C4=Extreme, C1=Balanced, C2=Silent) but writing it does not switch the mode - it is a status mirror, not a trigger. The real switch is the command above, handled by the service.

dotnet publish MControlTray.csproj -c Release -r win-x64

Run the tests with:

dotnet test test/MControlTray.Tests/MControlTray.Tests.csproj

Produces a single self-contained native .exe (~1-2 MB) via NativeAOT - no .NET runtime required to run it. Building it needs the Visual Studio C++ Desktop workload (NativeAOT uses the MSVC linker).

Scope will grow into a broader MSI control tray. Planned / ideas (contributions welcome):

• User Scenario switching (Extreme / Balanced / ECO-Silent)
• Configurable global hotkey
• Cooler Boost toggle
• Custom fan curves
• Battery charge limit
• Live active-state read-back
• Per-model config (no recompile)

Inspired by the Linux MSI community: msi-ec (a kernel EC driver) and MControlCenter (a Qt GUI). This project targets Windows and goes through MSI's official service rather than raw EC access.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. (MSI). "MSI", "MSI Center", and product names are trademarks of their respective owners. This is an independent interoperability tool built from observed behavior. Provided as-is, use at your own risk.

MIT