Lenovo Legion Toolkit

This is a utility created for Lenovo Legion 5, 5 Pro, 7, etc. laptops, that allows changing a couple of features that are only available in Lenovo Vantage.

It runs no background services, uses less memory, uses virtually no CPU, and contains no telemetry. Just like Lenovo Vantage, this application is Windows only.

Join the Legion Series Discord: https://discord.com/invite/legionseries!

Disclaimer

The tool comes with no warranty. Use at your own risk.

This is a hobby project. I want to make it available on more devices, but it will take some time, so please be patient and read through this readme carefully.

Donate

If you enjoy using the Lenovo Legion Toolkit, consider donating.

Download

You can download the installer from the Releases page here: Latest release.

Compatibility

Lenovo Legion Toolkit is compatible with a lot of Lenovo Legion laptops from 2020 and 2021 running Windows 10 and 11. All testing done by me is done always on the latest Windows 11 update and Legion 5 Pro 16ACH6H.

If you are getting an incompatible message on startup, you can check the Contribution section down at the bottom, to see how can you help. Keep in mind, that not always I can make all options compatible with all hardware since I do not have access to it.

Note: Y-models (Y540, Y740, etc) have limited compatibility only, meaning not all options work.

The list of supported models can be found here: Compatibility.cs.

Features

The app allows to:

• Change settings like power mode, battery charging mode, etc. that are available only through Vantage.
• 4-zone RGB and White backlight keyboards support.
• Change display refresh rate (built-in display only).
• Deactivate discrete GPU (nVidia only).
• View battery statistics.
• Download software updates.
• Define Actions that will run when the laptop is i.e. connected to AC power.
• Disable/enable Lenovo Vantage and Fn Keys service without uninstalling it.

Disable/enable Lenovo Vantage

You can disable Lenovo Vantage without uninstalling it. It is especially useful if you want to keep Vantage around i.e. for checking updates.

You can do it from the Settings page. If you disable Vantage, it will stop and disable its services, and disable all funky Lenovo Scheduled tasks. Once Vantage is disabled, it will no longer start any background processes on startup.

If you want to open Lenovo Vantage, you need to re-enable it from the tool, otherwise, it will prompt to reinstall itself.

Disable/enable Fn Keys service

You can disable Lenovo Fn Keys services without uninstalling them. You can do it from the Settings page. If you disable Fn Keys service, it will stop and disable its services, and disable all funky Lenovo Scheduled tasks. Once Fn Keys service is disabled, it will no longer start any background processes on startup.

Lenovo Legion Toolkit will handle all Fn key shortcuts.

Deactivate discrete GPU

Sometimes discrete GPU stays active even when it should not. This can happen for example, if you work with an external screen and you disconnect it - some processes will keep running on discrete GPU keeping it alive and shortening battery life.

There are two ways to help the GPU deactivate:

1. killing all processes running on dGPU (this one seems to work better),
2. disabling dGPU for a short amount of time, which will force all processes to move to the integrated GPU.

Deactivate button will be enabled when dGPU is active, you have Hybrid mode enabled and there are no screens connected to dGPU. If you hover over the button, you will see the current P state of dGPU and the list of processes running on it.

Keep in mind that some apps may not like this feature and crash when you deactivate dGPU.

Windows Power Plans

Lenovo Legion Toolkit will automatically switch Windows power plans when Power Mode changes and when Lenovo Vantage is disabled.

On some laptops though, Lenovo Vantage never switched power plans. If you have one of the laptops where Lenovo Vantage does not change Windows power plans automatically you can override this behavior in Settings. This will allow Toolkit to always change Windows power plans, even if Lenovo Vantage is running in the background.

CPU Boost Modes

This allows modifying the hidden setting of Windows Power Plans called Processor performance boost mode. It is a little bit cryptic what these options do, but the best explanation is provided here:

Power and performance tuning @microsoft.com

ProcessorPerformanceBoostMode @microsoft.com

Credits

Special thanks to:

• ViRb3, for creating Lenovo Controller, which was used as a base for this tool
• falahati, for creating NvAPIWrapper and WindowsDisplayAPI
• SmokelessCPU for help with 4-zone RGB keyboard support

FAQ

Why doesn't LLT launch on startup even though Autorun option is enabled?

LLT is started using Task Scheduler, so that it can launch with admin rights. Startup is delayed by 1 minutes (30 seconds in version 2.4.0 and up) to allow other components to start and be ready to use. If you don't see LLT in tray after a ~minute after seeing your desktop, create an issue.

My motherboard was replaced and now LLT gives me incompatible massage. What do I do?

Sometimes new motherboard does not contain correct model numbers and serial numbers. You should try this tutorial to try and recover them. If that method does not succeed, you can workaround by going to %LOCALAPPDATA%\LenovoLegionToolkit and creating an args.txt file. Inside that file paste --skip-compat-check. This will disable all compatibility checks in LLT. Use this workaround only if correct model number, serial number etc. can't be restored.

I can't find Legion AI Engine option.

AI Engine is not supported. It requires Lenovo services to run. I recommend simply switching to Performance mode.

Which RGB types are supported?

Currently only white-backlight and 4-zone RGB keyboards are supported.

Will iCue RGB keyboards be supported?

No. Check out OpenRGB project.

Will Legion Spectrum RGB keyboards be supported?

Probably. I would like to add support to Spectrum RGB, but I currently don't have a device that supports it. PRs are welcome.

Can I have more RGB effects?

Only options natively supported by hardware are available; adding support for custom effects is not planned. If you would like more customization check out L5P-Keyboard-RGB or OpenRGB.

Contribution

I appreciate any feedback that you have, so please do not hesitate to report issues. PRs are also welcome!

Bugs

If you find any bugs in the app, please report them. It will be very helpful if you start the app with --trace parameter and reproduce the issue. You can find logs in %LOCALAPPDATA%\LenovoLegionToolkit\log. Of course attach the latest log to the issue here on GitHub.

Just, don't run with this parameter all the time, it creates a really large amount of logs.

Compatibility

It would be great to expand the list of compatible devices, but to do it your help is needed!

If you are willing to check if this app works correctly on your device that is currently unsupported, click Continue on the popup you saw on startup. Lenovo Legion Toolkit will start logging automatically so you can submit them if anything goes wrong.

Remember that some functions may not function properly, so keep this in mind.

I would appreciate it, if you create an issue here on GitHub with the results of your testing.

Make sure to include the following information in your issue:

1. Full model name (i.e. Legion 5 Pro 16ACH6H)
2. List of features that are working as expected.
3. List of features that seem to not work.
4. List of features that crash the app.

The more info you add, the better the app will get over time. If anything seems off, write down precisely what was wrong and attach logs (%LOCALAPPDATA%\LenovoLegionToolkit\log).

Thanks in advance!