Microsoft introduced new features in Windows 10 to help users get better battery life from the operating system. If you are facing battery troubles after upgrading to Windows 10, following are some tips and new features that would help you significantly improve Windows 10 battery life.
Software plays a very important role in optimizing a machine for longer battery life. Windows 10 introduces some new features that aim to help the user improve battery life. This is further added by a few tips that you should follow regardless of what machine or OS you are on to extend battery life.
Important: You might be seeing the battery icon in the task bar being stuck at 9% (or 12%, etc) even when your device is plugged and charging. Restart your Windows 10 PC to get rid of this "alarming" sign.
1- Use Windows 10 Battery Saver:
Battery Saver is a new feature included in the Windows 10 Settings app that helps you optimize battery life on Windows 10 powered machines. Go to Settings > System > Battery Saver to access the new feature. Here you'll notice a Battery use link.
This will give you a simple breakdown of what services or system components are consuming the most battery. Expect to see display somewhere at the top. You can here also limit different services and play around with options.
- Click on the link Change background app settings and change the apps that can run in the background. Try to disable as many apps as you can as background apps “receive info, send notifications, and stay up-to-date, even when you’re not using them” meaning a lot of battery drain. Windows 10 has enabled tons of apps by default many of which might be useless to you. You can also include other apps not in the list - shared in the next step.
- Next is a Change Battery saver settings link. In here, you can set the bar to when the battery saver feature should get enabled automatically. It's set at 20% but you can configure it to higher or lower battery percentage. You can (and should) check the Lower screen brightness while in battery saver and uncheck the push notifications for apps. Here, you can also use the Add an app feature to add whichever apps you always want to have running in the background.
2- Windows 10 Power & Sleep:
Spotting right below the Battery saver option in System, is another battery-related feature: Power & sleep.
- You can configure the settings to when should your machine's screen turn off and when should your PC go to sleep, when on battery. You can tweak these according to your own preferences.
- At the bottom, click on Additional power settings to have access to more settings. This will open the Power Options in the control panel which is similar to the older Windows versions. Click on Change plan settings to configure different settings (some of which might be similar to the above option). Power Options include all the settings that were part of the earlier versions as Microsoft still hasn't migrated all of these to the Settings app.
- More tips to optimize Windows 10 battery:
These tips are often recommended for all gadgets and help in extending the battery life.
- Screen brightness: display and processor are two of the primary components drawing out most of the battery life. Make sure you use the Battery saver and Power & sleep features to dim the brightness.
- Turn off communications: enabling Airplane mode helps extending battery life. Disable all kinds of wireless communications including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc whenever they are not in use. Go to Settings > Network & Internet > and Airplane mode to turn all the communications off or on.
- Only run necessary programs: close all the programs that you aren't using. During the hours when you cannot charge up your Windows 10 powered notebooks or laptops, try to cut down on the time you play games or watch videos. Close programs like iTunes, Photoshop and others when not required.
- Choose the right wallpaper: Colors like white or red increase power usage of the display component. Using a black background is always recommended to improve battery life, no matter what the device you are using. Go to Settings > Personalization > Background to select a solid color (black is recommended) for background. Under the Colors tab, disable Show color on Start, taskbar, and action center and Make Start, taskbar, and action center transparent and enable the Automatically pick an accent color from my background feature to improve Windows 10 battery life.
- Disconnect accessories: This goes without saying that you shouldn't put the burden of charging your other accessories (including smartphones) on your machine when you need it to last you through the day.
Use Windows 10 Battery Saver and Power & Sleep features along with the tips shared above and we are sure you will manage to get more life out of a single charge on your machine. Don't forget to share your own tips with us.
- Recommended: Windows 10 Guides to help with your journey on the new OS
About the author: Rafia joined Wccftech in 2012 as a tech reporter. She is currently working on stories focusing on people and technologies that are turning Microsoft into a “company to watch” again. She is also responsible for collaborating with tech makers and e-commerce platforms to bring annoying but tempting deals to our readers.
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