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Laptop batteries degrade over time and lose their capacity, resulting in less uptime. I faced the same situation with my ASUS laptop, but after tweaking some deeper Windows 11 settings, I witnessed a massive improvement in battery life. I’ll share them below.
1Tweak Power Mode
Power mode in Windows 11 indicates your device’s use of the available resources. Ideally, you must set it toBalancedorMaximum performance(if you have an AC adapter connected).
But these two modes won’t help improve battery life. Navigate toSettings > Power & battery > Power mode. SelectBest power efficiencyfrom the dropdown to conserve your laptop’s battery life.
2Enable Battery Saver or Energy Saver
Battery Saver will force your Windows PC to stop background activities, updates, sync, and other OS elements that consume system resources and aggressively drain the battery.
PressWin + Ato open the Quick settings. Then click theBattery Savericon to enable the feature. However, you may access more granular controls by following these steps:
The 20 percent brightness level isn’t applicable in every scenario (like outdoors). You can skip this option and set the brightness manually.
Microsoft rebranded Battery Saver to Energy Saver in Windows 11 24H2.
3Lower the Display’s Refresh Rate
High-refresh rate displays that are available on mid and high-end laptops consume more power. When battery life is a priority, you don’t need the best visual experience the display can offer. It’s better to lower the refresh rate by following these steps:
This small compromise in visual fidelity will help your Windows 11 laptop last longer.
Some OEMs bundle an app—for example, Armoury Crate on my Asus TUF laptop—which automatically lowers the refresh rate when using battery power. In such cases, you don’t need to reduce the refresh rate manuallly.
4Change Screen and Sleep Settings
Screen and sleep settings can help you save battery when you’re not using your laptop (even briefly). You can define an interval after which the display powers off or thecomputer enters sleep modeby following these steps:
5Disable Startup and Background Apps
Startup apps reduce battery life because they start running the moment you log in to your PC. To disable them, visitSettings > Apps > Startupsection. Turn off the toggle next to apps that you don’t need.
For example, you may disable game clients and collaboration apps like Microsoft Teams, third-party apps, etc. Don’t turn off the touchpad or display apps.
While Battery Saver takes care of background apps to some extent,Microsoft statesthat some apps or their features (notifications or updates) continue to run in the background. To turn these off, you must first identify the power hogs.
Remember that only some apps have an Advanced Options page that lets you change the background permissions. You can follow these steps for those apsp:
Now, the app won’t run in the background, and you won’t get any notifications.
6Modify Video Playback Settings
you’re able to lower video playback settings in Windows 11 to boost battery life. Go toSettings > Apps > Video playbackand setBattery optionstoOptimize for battery life.
If your laptop has an HDR display, Windows will turn the feature off on battery power. However, if it doesn’t have an HDR display and you use the HDR streaming option, you must configure it. Here’s how:
7Configure Graphics Settings for Apps
If your laptop has a dedicated GPU, you can force the apps to usethe integrated GPU (part of the CPU)to save power. Here’s how:
8Adjust Windows Search Indexing Settings
Windows builds a search index in the background to help you find items faster. But you’re able to force the Indexing feature to take a backseat while using battery power. Here’s what you need to do:
9Use Power Saving Mode in Browsers
Browsers are indispensable tools for most productivity tasks you do online. Be it reading or editing documents, researching, conducting virtual meetings, etc. But browsers consume a lot of power and memory while doing so.
However, Edge and other popular browsers have power-saving features that can extend your laptop’s battery life.Edge is a fantastic choice for saving power on Windows laptopsdue to its efficiency mode and sleeping tabs feature.
Similarly,Chrome has a built-in Energy Saver modethat lowers the background activity and visual effects. All these features will force the browser to gulp less battery.
10Experiment With a Custom Power Plan
You cancreate a custom power plan in Windows 11that adheres to your battery-saving requirements. By doing so, you can control the processor power management, display and sleep settings, wireless adapter settings, and more. However, you’ll have to do a lot of tinkering to understand what settings work for your use case.
It’s a bit complex to set up and is useful only if you want to leave no stone unturned to maximize battery life on your laptop. you may alsocheck the battery report on Windowsto understand your laptop’s battery capacity and whether it needs replacement.
Overall, with these settings tweaks, you should be able to get your Windows laptop to last much longer on battery power. But if none of these tips made a noticeable impact, it’s probably time to replace the battery or upgrade your laptop altogether.
