Say goodbye to battery anxiety! Maximize PC usage this way
What's the story
Windows PCs have seen significant improvements in battery life over the years.
However, the fear of disconnecting from a fixed power source, particularly with older PCs that have lost some battery capacity, still persists.
The key to reducing this 'battery anxiety' lies not in medication or meditation, but in understanding how your PC and Windows operate together.
Here, we explore methods to monitor usage habits and extend battery life.
Tools overview
Utilizing built-in tools to optimize performance
The tools required to maximize battery life are already included in your Windows installation.
Some of these tools are part of the Windows Settings app, but the most crucial one is the Power Settings Command-Line Tool, Powercfg.exe.
With appropriate command-line switches, this tool can collect a wealth of information about your PC's power usage, giving you insights.
Generating report
Creating a battery report
The first step to maximize battery life is to create and save a battery report using the Power Settings tool.
This report, saved as an HTML document, provides detailed information regarding your PC's battery usage over time.
It comprises tables and charts showing recent usage, usage history, battery capacity over time, and battery life estimates.
Battery capacity
Understanding current capacity
The second step in maximizing battery life is to check your battery's current capacity.
Laptop batteries have a capacity that is measured in milliwatt hours (mWh), which degrades over time as you charge, and discharge the battery.
The Installed Batteries section of the battery report shows the design capacity of each available battery, and its current full-charge capacity.
Usage analysis
Analyzing battery usage over time
The third step involves analyzing your observed usage over time.
The battery report provides details of battery drains under the Battery Usage heading, showing a graph and table covering the last three days.
This data helps you understand how much of a drain your daily activity places on your laptop battery.
It also helps you prioritize reducing battery-draining tasks.
You can also get estimates of your average battery life using the Battery Life Estimates section of each battery report.