GhostDeck - for MSI laptops

_{(formerly “MSI Profile Switcher” - renamed to keep the project clearly independent of MSI; see docs/ABOUT_THE_NAME.md)}

A lightweight, independent Windows tray app to switch MSI laptop power profiles - Silent / Balanced / Extreme / Super Battery - instantly via global hotkeys, the tray menu, or auto-switch on AC/battery, with an on-screen overlay showing the active profile.

Built because MSI Center 2.0 removed the Silent profile. This app talks to the Embedded Controller (EC) through MSI's own WMI interface - no kernel driver, no disabling of Windows security - so it works regardless of the MSI Center version (even with MSI Center uninstalled).

⚠️ Hardware-specific. Developed and tested on MSI Raider GE78HX 13V (board MS-17S1, i9-13950HX, EC firmware 17S1IMS1.114), and confirmed by an owner on the GE78 HX 14V (17S2IMS2, same board). EC registers are model/firmware-specific - read docs/TECHNICAL.md before trying it on another model. Use at your own risk.

📋 ~135 MSI models recognised - the GE78HX board (13V + 14V), the Crosshair A16 HX (D7W/D8W) and the Sword 16 HX (B13V/B14V) are confirmed on real hardware, the rest are experimental (opt-in). See the full supported-models list, or browse it live in the app's Models tab.

Features

• 🖥️ Tray icon (color = active profile) with a profile menu, plus a tabbed main window (Scenarios / Status / Fan curve / Models / Report / Updates) with a light / dark theme
• ⌨️ Global, rebindable hotkeys (default Ctrl+Alt+F1–F4, Ctrl+Alt+P = cycle)
• 🔔 On-screen overlay (OSD) on every profile change
• 🎮 Detachable gaming overlay (HUD) - a small always-on-top panel with temps / fan RPM / profile / load / GPU% / VRAM / clocks / RAM / battery, in a card or bar layout. Pick which metrics to show, drag it anywhere (position remembered) or snap to a corner, toggle with a hotkey (default Ctrl+Shift+O). Rendered per-pixel with independent background & content opacity, smooth anti-aliased text, a readability shadow, optional click-through lock (Ctrl+Shift+L)
• 🌍 8 languages - EN / PL / DE / FR / ES / 中文 / PT-BR / RU
• 🎨 Custom color per profile
• 📊 Status - live CPU/GPU temperature & fan rings, fan RPM, CPU usage & approx. clock, GPU load % / VRAM, RAM, battery %, plus a live EC profile-byte matrix (what each profile writes vs. the current values). Extra metrics are read driver-free (Windows PDH counters - no kernel driver, anti-cheat-safe)
• 🌀 Fan curve editor - drag a custom CPU/GPU curve and run it on Balanced / Extreme / Super Battery (MSI Center only allows one in Extreme); fully reversible. Silent is the exception: its power cap lives in the same EC byte the curve needs, so turning a curve on in Silent necessarily leaves Silent for Balanced - the app warns and switches for you
• 🌪️ Fan Boost - force both fans to full speed with one click, a tray entry or a global hotkey (default Ctrl+Alt+F5), independent of the active profile; shown as a compact toggle "brick" on the Scenarios tab (equivalent of MSI's Cooler Boost)
• 📜 Change-history log - a running log of recent profile switches and EC writes (time, source: hotkey / tray / auto-AC / fan curve / external sync, the bytes written, and a readback), with a full-log window - handy for model-support reports
• 🛡️ Firmware-change guard - after a BIOS/EC update the app detects the changed firmware, blocks automatic writes and asks you to re-verify the model before it touches the EC again
• 🔌 Optional auto-switch on AC / battery (off by default, so it won't fight MSI software)
• 🔋 Battery charge limit (60 / 80 / 100 %)
• 🚀 Start with Windows (elevated scheduled task - no UAC nag at logon)
• 🔄 Syncs the UI if the profile is changed externally (e.g. by MSI Center)
• ⬇️ In-app updates - a daily update check (can be disabled) with a tray notification, plus one-click install from the Updates tab: it downloads the new release, shows a progress bar and restarts itself on the new version (the previous .exe is kept as a .bak and cleaned up on next start); falls back to the download page if the download fails
• 📣 Announcements & feedback - occasional in-app notices (tray balloon + a dismissible banner) fetched read-only from the repo on the same daily check; a Send feedback… tray entry opens GitHub Discussions. No data is collected by the app (a plain download, same privacy footprint as the update check); both can be turned off with the update-check toggle

Comparison with MSI software

GhostDeck is a small, focused tool - it deliberately does one thing (power/fan profiles) well, rather than replacing MSI Center. The table shows where it helps most: the Silent profile MSI removed, a fan curve outside just Extreme, no background services, and full transparency of what it writes to the EC.

Feature	MSI Center 2.0	GhostDeck
Silent profile	❌ (removed in 2.0)	✅
Balanced / Extreme / Super Battery modes	✅	✅
Full fan speed (Fan Boost / MSI Cooler Boost)	✅	✅
Battery charge limit	✅ (60/80/100)	✅ (60/80/100)
Custom fan curve	Limited¹	✅ *(Balanced / Extreme / Super Battery)*¹
Global rebindable hotkeys	Limited²	✅
Auto-switch profile on AC / battery	❌	✅
On-screen overlay (OSD)	✅ (profile / Fn keys)	✅ *(every function)*⁶
Detachable gaming overlay (HUD)	❌	✅ (temps / RPM / GPU% / VRAM / clocks / RAM / battery; card or bar)
Live EC profile-byte view / transparency	❌	✅
Change & EC-write history log	❌	✅
Hardware monitoring	✅	Limited³
Works with any / no MSI Center version	❌	✅
Installed size	~950 MB⁴ + background services	~155 MB⁵ (single portable .exe, no services)
RGB / keyboard / other MSI-Center features	✅	❌
In-app self-update	✅	✅ (one-click install + restart)
Open source	❌	✅

1. MSI Center only allows a custom fan curve in Extreme; this app runs one on Balanced / Extreme / Super Battery, fully reversible. Silent is a hardware exception: its power cap and the fan-curve mode share the same EC byte (0xD4), so enabling a curve in Silent necessarily switches the profile to Balanced (the app warns first).
2. MSI Center's shortcuts are limited; here every hotkey is global and rebindable.
3. Monitors CPU/GPU temperature, fan RPM, CPU & RAM usage via EC/WMI, plus GPU load %, VRAM, an approximate CPU clock and battery % via driver-free Windows PDH counters - not MSI Center's full telemetry.
4. MSI Center 2.0.x as the UWP app plus the files it installs to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI on first launch.
5. Self-contained single .exe - no installer, no background service, no separate .NET runtime.
6. MSI Center shows an overlay for profile / Fn-key changes; this app shows one for every action it performs - profile switch and Fan Boost (and future functions) - so you always get feedback on what changed.

The comparison is against MSI Center 2.0 (the version that dropped Silent). This app is an unofficial, independent project - not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored or supported by MSI. "MSI", "MSI Center" and "Cooler Boost" are trademarks of Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.; they are used here only descriptively to state compatibility.

Screenshots

Tray menu - switch profile, Status, Language, Settings	Scenarios - large profile tiles + charge limit and AC/battery auto-switch
Status - temperature/fan rings, fan RPM, CPU usage and RAM, tier badge	Settings - grouped cards: theme, language, power, startup, rebindable hotkeys
Report my model - guided in-app EC capture → pre-filled GitHub issue	Updates - installed version, check now, release history
Fan curve - drag a custom CPU/GPU fan curve (manual fan control)	Status (EC bytes) - live profile-byte matrix, legend and fan-curve tables
Models - every recognized firmware with its support tier	Change log - full history of profile switches and EC writes

Download

Grab the latest GhostDeck.exe from the Releases page. It's a single, self-contained file - no install, no .NET runtime needed. Run it and approve the UAC prompt (EC access requires administrator).

Supported models

Each model is ✅ tested (verified on real hardware) or ⚗️ experimental (built from the msi-ec register maps but not yet verified - the "Silent" power-cap behaviour is unconfirmed). On an unrecognized firmware the app runs read-only (Status works, writes disabled), so it never writes wrong registers on an untested machine.

Experimental models are opt-in: enable them in Settings → Power → "Enable experimental models". They write only documented MSI shift/fan registers (low risk), but switching may not give the same low-power "Silent" until an owner confirms it.

~134 models are recognised, grouped into two EC families taken from the msi-ec maps and cross-checked against MControlCenter:

Tier	Models	EC firmware / registers	Fan curve
✅ Tested	MSI Raider GE78HX / Vector GP78HX 13V, GE78 HX 14V	17S1IMS1.*, 17S2IMS2.* - shift 0xD2 / fan 0xD4	✅ editable
⚗️ G2 family (~101)	Raider / Vector / Titan HX (13V–14V), Stealth 16-18, Sword / Pulse / Crosshair 16, Katana, Cyborg, Bravo, Modern / Prestige / Summit	shift 0xD2 / fan 0xD4 / super-batt 0xEB	◉ editable after opt-in (unverified)
⚗️ G1 family (~33)	older GS / GF / GE / GP, Modern, Alpha, Bravo, Delta, Creator	shift 0xF2 / fan 0xF4 / charge 0xEF	- profiles only

The G2 fan-curve tables use the fixed addresses (CPU 0x6A/0x72, GPU 0x82/0x8A) that MControlCenter writes across the whole family, so they are practice-confirmed; on experimental models the curve is editable once you opt in, but stays flagged unverified until you compare it with MSI Center on your own model. See the full per-firmware list of all ~135 models (source of truth: Devices.cs). A handful of models whose msi-ec config documents no "Silent" fan value are deliberately left out (Silent is this app's core function - guessing it would be unsafe).

Got a different MSI - or own an experimental one and can confirm it works? The easiest way is right inside the app: tray menu → Report my model… (also a button in the Status window). It walks you through a read-only EC capture in each MSI Center scenario, builds the report, copies it to your clipboard, saves it to a file, and opens a pre-filled GitHub issue - just paste and submit. (Requires MSI Center installed as the scenario reference.)

Prefer to do it by hand? Open a Model support request with your EC firmware (shown in the app's Status window) and the output of the diagnostic scripts in scripts/diagnostics/. The procedure is in docs/TECHNICAL.md §11.

Build from source

Requires the .NET 8 SDK.

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true ^
  -p:PublishSingleFile=true -p:IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract=true -o publish

The app icon is generated by tools/gen-icon.ps1 (already committed as app.ico).

How it works (short version)

Each profile is a small set of EC register writes sent through root\wmi → MSI_ACPI.Set_Data (a 32-byte Package_32 buffer: Bytes[0] = address, Bytes[1] = value). The key lever is the fan-mode register 0xD4 (Silent = 0x1D), which the EC firmware ties to the power cap - in testing it dropped package power from ~104 W to ~30 W under load.

Full reverse-engineering write-up, register map, measurements and the diagnostic scripts: docs/TECHNICAL.md.

Full per-firmware list of every recognised model: docs/SUPPORTED_MODELS.md (also shown live in the app's Models tab).

EC register map credit: BeardOverflow/msi-ec.

FAQ

See docs/FAQ.md - fan control outside Extreme, exact-wattage / PL1-PL2 sliders (and the BIOS route), running alongside MSI Center (and why changes don't show in its UI), auto-clearing RAM, safety, and the admin/UAC prompt.

Testing the model gate (developer)

To preview the experimental / unsupported UI on any machine, set the MSIPS_FORCE_FIRMWARE environment variable to a firmware string before launching. The app then simulates that firmware and performs no EC writes (UI preview only):

# Run from an ADMIN PowerShell so the variable reaches the elevated app:
$env:MSIPS_FORCE_FIRMWARE = "16V1EMS1.100"   # an experimental model
# or "ZZZZ" for an unsupported firmware
& .\GhostDeck.exe
# (close it, clear the variable, relaunch to return to normal)

The Status window / tray show a (test) marker while simulating.

License

MIT © 2026 wygodad