16.10.2024

How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11

Adjust the settings, and your device will be able to last much longer on a single charge. na-windows-11-bea6e0c.jpg” alt=”How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11″ />

Dmitry Sazhko

Lifehacker Author

As increase laptop battery life on Windows 11

1. Keep your system up to date

How to increase battery life work laptop on Windows 11

Many users, by hook or by crook, tend to disable updates to their Windows. But along with updates, bug fixes that lead to performance drops and new versions of hardware drivers arrive in the system. Therefore, system updates can, in theory, reduce the power consumption of your PC.

By default, Windows 11 is updated only when the computer is connected to a power outlet. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically connect the laptop to a power outlet so that the system can download new security and performance patches.

If you wish, you can also do this manually by clicking “Start” → “Settings” → “Windows Update” → “Check availability of updates.

2. Change your display settings

The main source of power consumption in your laptop is the display. The brighter it is, the more the battery is consumed. Therefore, while running on battery power, it is worth changing this setting.

There are two ways to do this:

  • Press the brightness down button on the laptop keyboard in the row of F-keys above the number row.
  • Open Start → Settings → System » → Display and adjust the slider under Brightness.

3. Adjust your system's power consumption -11-94c0a88.jpg” alt=”How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11″ />

System power mode determines how intensively Windows 11 will allow the computer to use its processor, memory, and other resource-intensive components.

If power saving mode is enabled, the processor will not overclock above a certain frequency. Performance will decrease, but battery life will increase.

Click “Start” → “Settings” → “System” → “Power and Battery” and in the “Power Mode” section, select “Max. energy efficiency.

Most importantly, do not forget to return the “Balanced” or “Max. performance” when you plug in again and want to play games or run greedy software, otherwise the computer will slow down.

4. Activate battery saver -11-e8b16a0.jpg” alt=”How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11″ />

When in battery saver mode, Windows 11 lowers screen brightness, reduces notifications, and limits background app activity. Usually the system activates it automatically when a certain percentage is reached.

But you can also enable it manually. To do this, click “Start” → “Settings” → “System” → “Power and battery” and in the “Battery saver” section, click “Turn on now”.

Another option is to select “Always turn on battery saver automatically when” in the drop-down list and activate the “Decrease screen brightness in battery saver mode” checkbox. So you will significantly increase the battery life.

5. Set up background app activity -11-e6a6794.jpg” alt=”How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11″ />

Windows 11 is chock-full of built-in apps for all sorts of purposes, and they love to bite off their share of battery life. It would be a good idea to limit those programs that you do not need all the time.

Click Start → Settings → System → Power and Battery and in the Battery Usage section, look for applications that consume the most energy. Then click on the icon with three dots and select “Manage background activities”. In the “Allow an application to run in the background” field, select “Never”.

Repeat this for any programs you rarely use.

6. Adjust your computer's sleep time -11-4ad4509.jpg” alt=”How to increase laptop battery life on Windows 11″ />

Another great way to improve Windows 11 battery life is to force the system to go to sleep when the device is not in use. By default, when running on battery power, the computer turns off the screen after 5 minutes and enters sleep mode after 10. You can shorten the timeout.

To do this, click Start → Settings → System → Power and battery” and in the “Screen and sleep” section, specify the time of activity. For example, 1 minute. Now, even if your PC is idle, energy will not be wasted.

7. Reduce the quality of the video being played

How to increase battery life laptop on Windows 11

Some built-in Windows 11 apps like Microsoft Edge, Photos, and Movies & TV, as well as apps from the Microsoft Store like Hulu, Netflix, or Vudu knows how to adjust the quality of the video they play according to the state of your battery.

If your laptop is running on battery power, the system will play the video at a lower quality, which will reduce the load on the device and save more power.

Click “Start” → “Settings” → “Applications” → “Video Playback” and activate the option “Play videos at a lower resolution when running on battery”.

8. Do not leave your computer plugged in all the time

In general, different manufacturers have diametrically opposed opinions about whether it is possible to keep their laptops plugged in all the time.

So, Asus advises the ASUS Battery Information Center to drain the battery of devices to 50% at least once every two weeks and not keep them connected to power all the time. Dell doesn't consider Solved: Leaving your laptop plugged in all (or most) of the time/Dell Community to be a problem. The company recommends How to Improve the Performance of a Dell Laptop Battery/Dell US to install the proprietary Dell Power Manager utility, which will not allow either too low or excessive battery recharge.

But the laptop still heats up when connected to the network stronger than usual, which is bad for lithium batteries. Therefore, to maintain maximum life, a compromise must be found. network when you need to get the best performance for games or heavy software, and disconnect it after recharging to prevent overheating or overcharging the battery.

Cover: diy13/Shutterstock