Is there any easy way to adjust the backlight? Its seems messed up to have to go into system. Seems like there should be a soft or hard button that can be programed to do this. Probably is, I just can't figure it out. Thanks.

If your backlight turns itself off, you may have caused the problem without knowing it. If you press and hold the power up button for too long it will toggle the backlight on or off.

This isn't exactly what you are looking for, but if you uses the program iLauncher (found here), you can add a shortcut to the backlight setting. The shortcut allows me to just select it and then I am able to easily adjust the backlight. My setting continues to default to 10 seconds, even though I have used some registry hacks.

I do have Ilauncher. Where can I find the shortcut?

Options > Shortcuts > Add > Cpl Applets > Backlight