How to extend laptop battery life on Windows 11
Is your laptop’s battery not lasting as much as it should? Here are several tips to fix battery life problems on Windows 11.
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OnWindows 11, running low on battery when you are actively using the device can be a frustrating situation, even more, if there’s not a power outlet nearby, but there are many ways to make the most of a single charge, and in this guide, we’ll show you how.
For example, you can enable battery savers to disable features and visual effects that can negatively affect battery life. You can tweak the power settings to shorten when the screen should turn off and when the computer should enter sleep mode to preserve energy. You can enable hibernation to save the current session with your running applications onto the hard drive to shut down the system and extend the device’s battery life. It’s also possible to troubleshoot and fix common battery drain problems automatically and control many other features.
Thisguidewill walk you through the best tips to extend the battery life on your Windows 11 laptop as much as possible.
How to enable battery saver on Windows 11
On Windows 11, depending on the version installed on your computer, you find the power-saving feature with different names, including Battery Saver or Energy Saver. The biggest difference between Battery Saver and Energy Saver is that the new mode saves energy for devices with and without batteries.
Configure battery saver on version 23H2
To enable battery saver to extend your laptop battery life on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the battery saver feature will turn off features that may use a lot of power, such as background activity, file and email syncing, and fancy visual effects. In addition, the screen brightness will dim to improve battery life on Windows 11.
Configure energy saver on version 24H2
To configure the Energy Saver feature on version 24H2 and higher releases, use these steps:
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After you complete the steps, the power-saving feature will turn on according to your configuration. The effect will be similar to the legacy “Battery Saver” mode.
How to set when inactive display turns off on Windows 11
The display timeout settings differ depending on your operating system version.
Change inactive display on version 23H2
To reduce the time when a display should turn off automatically on version 23H2 or earlier releases, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the display will automatically turn off when you specify to save power.
Change inactive display on version 24H2
To change the time when a display should turn off automatically on version 24H2, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the screen will turn off automatically according to your configuration.
How to set when computer should sleep on Windows 11
Settings a timer to send the computer to sleep can help improve battery life, but the configuration will be slightly different, depending on whether you have version 23H2 or 24H2.
Change sleep timer on version 23H2
To reduce the time when a computer should enter sleep mode to save battery, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the laptop will enter into sleep mode after the time of inactivity you specified to conserve battery life.
Change sleep timer on version 24H2
To change the time when a device should sleep to save battery, use these steps:
After completing the steps, the laptop will enter sleep mode at the specified time.
How to change power mode on Windows 11
Changing the power mode is similar on any version of Windows 11.
To change the power mode to favor battery life, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the system will implement policies to favor battery life rather than performance.
How to sleep laptop when the lid closes on Windows 11
Although you can always use the power options from the Start menu, you can also customize the system to Sleep or Hibernate as you close the laptop’s lid to help you conserve battery.
Customize lid close action on version 23H2
To change what closing the lid does on Windows 11, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the next time you close the lid, the laptop will go into the sleep mode you selected to extend battery life.
This page also allows you to control the action of the power button. Depending on your preferences, you can set it to sleep or hibernate (recommended) the computer.
The “Hibernate” option will only be available if you have previously enabled the feature on Windows 11.
Customize lid close action on version 24H2
To change what closing the lid does on Windows 11 version 24H2, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the laptop will go into the power-saving mode you selected when you close the lid.
How to change video playback settings on Windows 11
On Windows 11 version 24H2 or 23H2, you can change the video playback settings to help preserve the battery regardless of the version of the operating system.
To optimize battery life for video playback, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the video playback settings will be optimized to preserve battery life on the computer.
How to disable apps at startup on Windows 11
To prevent apps from running at startup to minimize battery drain on any version of Windows 11, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the computer will no longer launch additional programs at startup that could waste system resources that can negatively affect the battery experience.
How to turn off wireless adapter on Windows 11
If a task doesn’t require an internet connection, you could disable the wireless communication to extend the laptop’s battery life further.
To disable Wi-Fi communication to extend battery life on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the computer will disable the wireless communication to reduce battery drainage.
Alternatively, you can use the"Windows key + A"keyboard shortcut and click theWi-Fibutton to disable wireless communication.
How to disable Bluetooth on Windows 11
Like mobile phones, Bluetooth can also help drain the battery faster. If you disable the adapter, you can help improve the computer’s battery life on any version of Windows 11.
To disable Bluetooth to preserve battery life, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the device will pause Bluetooth connections to improve battery life.
Alternatively, you can use the"Windows key + A"keyboard shortcut and click theBluetoothbutton to disable wireless communication.
How to turn on Airplane mode on Windows 11
Although you can manually disable Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and other wireless communications individually, you can turn off all these signals automatically by turning on Airplane mode.
To turn on Airplane mode to save battery life on Windows 11 (version 23H2 or 24H2), use these steps:
Alternatively, you can click the network icon in the Taskbar System Tray (Windows key + Ashortcut) and click theAirplane modebutton.
When Airplane mode is enabled, all wireless communications will be disabled, resulting in less power being utilized, expanding the battery life of the device.
How to switch to dark theme on Windows 11
When you use dark color mode and dark wallpaper on Windows 11, the display won’t use as much energy to drive the pixels on the screen. As a result, using this color mode can help save battery life.
To set the dark theme on Windows 11 (version 24H2 or 23H2), use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the desktop will include the dark version of Bloom wallpaper for Windows 11, and the Taskbar, Start menu, and supported apps will switch to the dark color mode.
How to enable power usage during indexing on Windows 11
To minimize Windows Search battery usage, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, Windows 11 will temporarily throttle or pause search and updates to the index database to extend battery life while on battery power.
This option is no longer available on Windows 11 version 24H2 and higher releases.
How to disable animation effects on Windows 11
Windows 11 (version 24H2 and older releases) has visual effects, such as minimizing, opening, closing, and maximizing windows, actions in the Taskbar, and more, to make the experience smoother. The only problem is that these effects require additional computing resources that can drain the laptop’s battery. However, you can disable these effects to save some battery and make the experience feel a little faster in the process.
To disable the Windows 11 animation effects, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the system won’t need to use additional resources to play visual effects, improving battery life.
How to lower brightness on Windows 11
To lower the brightness settings to save battery life on Windows 11 (version 24H2 and 23H2), use these steps:
After completing the steps, the display will lower its brightness to reduce power consumption and battery usage.
How to enable Dynamic Refresh Rate on Windows 11
Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR) is a feature that automatically lowers the device’s refresh rate to save battery life. When using this feature, you will be trading off-screen quality, but it’ll help to preserve battery life.
The feature is only available on displays with 120Hz or higher refresh rates. Also, the steps will be slightly different depending on the version of Windows 11.
Change refresh settings on version 23H2
To enable Dynamic Refresh Rate on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the device will automatically lower the display refresh rate when a higher rate isn’t necessary to save power.
Change refresh settings on version 24H2
To enable Dynamic Refresh Rate on Windows 11 version 24H2, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the laptop will automatically lower the display refresh rate when a higher rate isn’t necessary.
How to choose graphics card per application on Windows 11
If you want to preserve battery life as much as possible, you can change the system settings so that the applications use the less powerful graphics card. Of course, this only works on a system with two or more graphics cards.
These settings will also be slightly different depending on the Windows version installed on the computer.
Configure graphics card for apps on version 23H2
To configure an app to use the less powerful GPU on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the application will use the less powerful graphics card to preserve battery life.
Configure graphics card for apps on version 24H2
To configure an app to use the less powerful GPU on version 24H2, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the app will use the less powerful graphics card to preserve energy on the device.
How to enable hibernation on Windows 11
On Windows 11 versions 24H2, 23H2, and 21H2, hibernation is a feature that saves the contents loaded into memory onto the hard drive, allowing you to turn off the computer to preserve the battery without losing your session. The next time you turn off the computer, the previous session will load, allowing you to pick up where you left off.
To enable hibernation on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, hibernation will be enabled on the computer.
The feature isn’t supported on all system configurations. If you can’t enable hibernation, there could be several reasons. For example, the graphics card driver does not support the power state, and you need to update the video driver to fix the problem.
If the computer uses hybrid sleep on Windows 11, you must disable the feature before turning on hibernation.
In the case that hibernation is supported but not enabled on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), you may need to access the motherboard firmware to update the settings.
If the feature isn’t supported because of the hardware configuration, you won’t be able to enable the feature.
How to control app battery usage on Windows 11
If you suspect that one or more apps are draining the battery fast, you can use the power settings to identify the apps using the most battery and change their settings to prevent them from running in the background to conserve power.
These instructions apply to all supported versions of Windows 11.
View apps battery usage
To view the battery usage history on Windows 11, use these steps:
While in this view, you can see the device’s battery usage to find out the apps using the most energy.
Manage apps background activities
To change apps background activities to improve battery life, use these steps:
Alternatively, you can go toSettings>Apps & features, select the app, click the menu (three-dotted) button, click onAdvanced options, and then change the “Background apps permissions” setting.
How to fix power problems to improve battery life on Windows 11
To fix power-related issues to extend battery life on Windows 11, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the troubleshooter will scan and apply common fixes to improve battery life on Windows 11 (as necessary).
It’s important to note that this feature may not be available on some devices.
How to remove viruses affecting battery life on Windows 11
A virus or any other type of malware can also decrease battery life. If you think that your computer is infected, you may be able to resolve this problem by doing a virus scan with Microsoft Defender Antivirus.
If you have a third-party antivirus, you will need to refer to the software documentation for the steps to perform a full malware scan.
To perform a full virus scan on Windows 11, use these steps:
After you complete the steps, the antivirus will scan and remove any virus that may negatively affect the experience and battery life.
When nothing seems to improve the device’s battery life, and this is a software-related problem, you may want to considerresetting the deviceto its factory default settings or performing aclean installation of Windows 11.
How to apply energy recommendations on Windows 11
Whether you have a device running Windows 11 version 24H2 or 23H2, you can also use the “Energy recommendations” settings to change the power settings to save energy according to the Microsoft guidelines.
To apply energy recommendations on your computer, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, the new settings will apply to reduce the energy consumption, which will directly help to reduce your carbon footprint.
The available options will depend on the features available on your computer, but usually, the system will suggest to set the energy mode to be more efficient, enable dark mode, reduce brightness, change the sleep timers, disable screen saver, and stopping USB devices when the screen is off to saver energy.
More resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10 and Windows 11, visit the following resources:
Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides. He also has an IT background and has achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA. He has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.
