Alienware revamps its Command Center app with a centralized game hub

Enlarge / The revamped Alienware Command Center's home screen, with its game library on the right. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Another quick update out of CES: Gaming PC maker Alienware is refreshing the Command Center software that comes paired with its line of notebooks and desktops. The overhauled settings app will first arrive in February on a slightly updated version of the company's Area 51 desktop, which loses a front USB port, adds a couple more fans and U.2 SSD support, and supports a wider breadth of LED colors on its chassis. The software will then come pre-installed on new Alienware devices going forward. Unfortunately, it won't be available for the Dell subsidiary's existing machines.

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View more stories This is a mostly visual revamp, with a cleaner, more spaced out, more graphics-heavy look. You can still use the app to monitor and adjust your hardware's fan speeds and heat output, create overclock profiles, change the lighting effects on your system itself, and create preset profiles for separate games. But that colorization can now be adjusted with more granularity, the overclocking tool lets you manage and test the effect with a few newbie-friendly sliders, and it all appears a bit easier to grok at first blush.

Beyond that, Alienware has now baked a game library and launcher tool into the app's home screen. The company says the tool will pull in titles downloaded from any source (Steam, GOG, Origin, etc.), the idea being to create a sort of centralized hub for all of your games. Dell says the Command Center will be removable, but the company cautions that it will be the only app that can control lighting and overclocking on Dell devices.

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