Lowering the volume, softening the brightness of your monitor, and unplugging peripherals are some standard and quick techniques to save the battery life of your computer. Apart from these, there are other tricks you can apply that will give you some additional time before you feel the need an outlet to plugin.
Enable and Configure Battery Saver Mode
Windows 10 has a built-in battery saver that adds a few more minutes to your battery.
Enable the battery saver in Windows 10:
1. Go to “Action Center” button in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
2. Click “Battery Saver”
Note: Repeat the same steps to disable the battery saver mode.
To configure battery saver tool:
1. Right-click the “Start” button.
2. Choose “Settings”.
3. Click “System”.
4. Opt “Battery”.
5. Drag the slider in the “Battery Saver” section to manage how soon battery saver turns on.
6. Click the toggle button beneath “Battery saver status until next charge” to turn battery saver on until you plug-in your laptop.
7. Select the checkbox next to “Lower screen brightness while in battery saver” to toggle the screen brightness when battery saver is enabled.
Set Your Display to Turn Off When Not in Use
You can configure your Windows 10 display when not in use for a specific amount of time. Additionally, you can also set it to disconnect network connections while asleep and on battery power. This will increase your laptop’s battery life in the long run. Here is how to make those changes:
1. Go to “Settings”.
2. Select “System”.
3. Click “Power & sleep”.
4. Go to “Screen” section’s dropdown menu and select a time option.
5. Now, scroll down to “Sleep” option and choose the time.
6. Scroll down to the “Network Connection” section and select “Always”.
Change or Create Your Own Power Plan
There are various power plans in Windows 10 to choose from, consisting one that saves battery. If the power plan is not good enough, you can create your own.
1. Go to “Settings”.
2. Select “System”
3. Now navigate to “Power & sleep”.
(Please refer to Image 1.2)
4. Browse “Additional power settings” in the “Related settings” section.
5. Click a “Power plan”.
If the default power plans don’t cut it, you can create your own:
1. Go to “Create a power plan” in the left-side pane.
2. Type a “Plan Name” for the power plan followed by clicking “Next”.
3. Click “Create”.
Under-clock Your Processor
Under-clocking your processor is a viable approach to save significant amount of power. Depending on your laptop, you can either bring down the Thermal Design Point (TDP) through the Intel Thermal Framework settings, or simply under-clock the CPU via Processor Power Management.
Let’s begin with the TDP method:
TDP provides an estimated measurement of the maximum temperature of your processor while working.
1. Go to “Settings”.
2. Select “System”.
3. Click “Power & Sleep”.
(Please refer to Image 1.2)
4. Scroll down and click “Additional Power Settings” in the Related Settings section.
(Please refer to Image 1.4)
5. Select “Change Plan Settings”.
6. Go to “Change advanced power settings”.
7. Click the “+” beside Intel(R) Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings to expand it.
8. Press “+” beside Config TDP Level to expand this section.
9. Click “On Battery”.
10. Go to the dropdown arrow next to “High TDP”.
11. Select “Low TDP”.
12. Click “Apply”.
13. Then click “OK”.
If you don’t find Intel(R) Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Settings option in your laptop, you can still under-clock the processor. Here is how:
1. Select “Settings”.
2. Hit “System”.
3. Go to “Power & Sleep”.
(Please refer to Image 1.2)
4. Scroll down and choose “Additional Power Settings” in the Related settings section.
(Please refer to Image 1.4)
5. Go to “Change Plan Settings” next to the power plan.
6. Select “Change Advanced Power Settings”.
7. Click the “+” button of Processor power management to expand this section.
8. Hit the “+” button of Maximum processor state.
9. Choose “On battery”.
10. Adjust the percentage to a level you’d like.
11. Click “Apply” followed by “OK”.
To add few extra minutes to your battery life, disable the wireless communication when not in use. Additionally, you can optimize your battery for video playback and ‘reduce the work the app can do’ when in the background.