Proven Ways to Improve Windows Laptop Battery Life

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Today’s laptops are insanely powerful compared to those of the past. While our mobile computers can run the gamut of Adobe’s Creative Suite, 3D computer games, and everything in between, battery life is always a concern. While advances in both hardware and software technologies have improved battery life significantly over the years, we’re sure that most people still have their laptop battery die on them at some point. Luckily, you can prolong your laptop battery life by implementing the following tricks.

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Tip: Here’s how you can fix battery drain issues in Windows.

Manage Screen Brightness

Screen backlighting is a major contributor to battery drain, nearly as significant as the processor or GPU under moderate load. Unless you are working in direct sunlight, you should lower the screen brightness to a level where the display remains comfortably visible.

We recommend setting the brightness to around 30%, but feel free to adjust it to your preference. To change the brightness, click on the icons in the system tray and adjust the brightness slider.

If you are in a dark room, then you can use the Dimmer app that can adjust brightness even lower than Windows native brightness feature.

Optimize Battery Settings

Windows battery settings have a bunch of options to manage power and battery drain. You should adjust all these options to save battery. In Windows Settings, go to System -> Power & battery.

Click on Energy recommendations here and you’ll see some battery-saving recommendations. Either apply them all or click Apply next to the ones you want to use.

Go back and click on Battery saver and adjust when Battery Saver mode should kick in. By default, it’s at 20%, but you can increase the threshold to start saving battery earlier. Make sure the Lower screen brightness when using battery option is toggled on.

If not already set by Energy recommendations, the Power mode should also be set to Best power efficiency.

Decrease Processor Power State

First, make sure you are using the Power Saver power plan. Press the Windows + R keys and type powercfg.cpl to open Power Options. Select Power Saver or Battery Saver mode. If it’s not listed, click the Create a power plan option and select Power saver.

Even though the Power saver plan set all settings to battery saving, it still allows the CPU to reach maximum power state. Depending on your needs, you can decrease the maximum processor state to save battery in exchange for performance.

Click on Change plan settings next to your selected power plan and click on Change advanced power settings.

Next, move to Processor power management -> Maximum processor state and decrease the On battery option by 10%. Afterward, check how it impacts your usage and keep decreasing to find a balance between performance and battery saving.

Check App Battery Usage

You can see how much battery each app is consuming. You can then minimize the use of apps that use too much battery or close them when not in active use.

In Windows Settings, move to System -> Power & battery and open the Battery usage section.

You’ll see a list of apps based on their power usage, both while active and in the background. If you see an app here that is consuming too much battery, you should minimize its use or properly terminate it if it’s running in the background.

Unplug External Devices

External devices can consume a significant amount of power, so it’s best to disconnect them when they’re not in active use. This includes devices such as external hard drives, mice, USB flash drives, webcams, cooling pads, and printers/scanners. Even when idle, these devices continue to draw power to be ready for immediate use.

If you don’t want to physically remove the external device, you can also disable/enable it in the Windows Device Manager. Search for “device manager” in Windows Search and open the Device Manager.

Right-click on the device you want to disable and select Disable. When you need to enable it, right-click on it again and select Enable.

Decrease Display Resolution

Screen resolution refers to the total number of pixels displayed on the screen horizontally and vertically. Higher resolutions provide more detailed images but also require more processing power from your laptop’s GPU. Reducing the display resolution can decrease the GPU load to increase performance and extend battery life.

To change the display resolution, go to System -> Display in Windows Settings. Adjust the resolution to a lower setting. For example, if your current resolution is 1920×1080, you can reduce it to 1600×900. While the display may not appear as sharp, this adjustment will help improve battery timing.

Decrease Display Refresh Rate

Your laptop’s screen has a native refresh rate that decides how often it refreshes the image per second. The higher the refresh rate, the smoother the experience you’ll get while engaging with high FPS content like videos or games. This refresh process consumes power, so decreasing the rate can enhance battery timing.

In Windows Settings, go to System > Display > Advanced Display and set a lower refresh rate next to Choose a refresh rate option.

Don’t worry, you won’t feel any difference doing regular activities like browsing. It will be noticeable when playing games or watching a video with too high FPS.

Disable Animations and Visual Effects

Windows includes various animations and effects that, while visually appealing, consume extra processing power and can drain your battery more quickly. If you’re willing to sacrifice some of these visual effects for improved battery life, here’s how to turn them off:

Press the Windows + R keys and type sysdm.cpl in the Run dialog to open System Properties. In the Advanced tab, click on Settings under the Performance section.

Select the Adjust for best performance option to disable all animations and visual effects.

Tip: If you don’t like how the text looks afterward, you can enable the Smooth edges of screen fonts and the other options with “Shadows” in the name.

Run Power Configuration Check

Windows can monitor your system behavior to generate a power report listing problems that can impact battery life. After applying the above solutions, running this check will help identify any additional improvements that can be made.

Search “cmd” in Windows Search, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

Here type the following command and press Enter.

powercfg /energy

Windows will observe your system behavior for 1 minute and then generate a report that can be found in C:\Windows\System32.

You can open the report in any browser to view it. Mainly, you want to focus on the Errors and Warnings sections of the report. It will list misconfigured settings and apps that can affect your battery timing.

Additional Battery-Saving Tips

In addition to the main methods mentioned, several small adjustments can further enhance your laptop’s battery life. While each change might seem minor on its own, they can collectively make a noticeable difference. Here are a few additional tips to help you get the most out of your laptop’s battery:

  • During the day, turn off the keyboard light. There should be a Fn key shortcut to do this on your keyboard.
  • Use shorter display timeout and sleep timer to allow your laptop to consume less energy when idle.
  • Wi-Fi uses more battery power, try using an ethernet connection when possible.
  • Use Airplane mode when you are not using any connectivity as network or Bluetooth consumes a lot of power.
  • In most cases, you won’t need location services enabled on a laptop, unlike phones. You should disable it by going to Privacy & security -> Location in Windows Settings.
  • Make sure you keep the laptop cool as heat can increase fan activity and components may work inefficiently as well, leading to higher battery use.
  • The laptop should also have sufficient free storage space. When there’s limited space, finding and managing data can consume extra processing power, which can increase battery usage.

After applying all the solutions above, you should see a big increase in overall battery life. If you are getting too low battery uptime, you might need to check the battery health to ensure it’s working fine.

Image credit: Vecteezy. All screenshots by Karrar Haider.

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Karrar Haider –
Contributor

Karrar is drenched in technology and always fiddles with new tech opportunities. He has a bad habit of calling technology “Killer”, and doesn’t feel bad about spending too much time in front of the PC. If he is not writing about technology, you will find him spending quality time with his little family.

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