Many people buy a laptop, install their favourite software and then just assume everything else is set up right, but is it? Perhaps not. Customise the power plan to boost the battery life.

A major issue of interest to laptop users is the battery life and there are different power plans that can extend the time the battery will last or boost performance, whichever is required. Can you have both performance and long life. Yes and no, well sort of. As we will see, you can create a compromise that gives the maximum performance with the minimum power usage.

Prolong battery life

With most things, the more you use them, the faster they will wear out, but batteries in laptop computers are the exact opposite. The more they are used (to a certain degree), the longer they will last.

The worst thing you can do to them is to keep them full charged or discharged – 0% and 100% battery charge are two extremes that should be avoided.

Many laptop computers are used on desks while connected to mains power and it is bad for the battery to use it this way for long periods of time. You should occasionally use it on battery power to keep it in tip top condition. Use it once a week if you can.

If the battery runs out of power, it should be charged up as soon as possible because leaving it discharged at 0% is bad for it.

Balance battery life and performance

Left click the battery/power icon at the right side of the taskbar on the Windows desktop to access the power panel.

There is a slider that runs from Best battery life on the left to Best performance on the right. This laptop has just one stop midway between the two, but some may have two or three settings. It is up to you which setting you choose and you cannot have long battery life and maximum performance. You must choose one or the other, or settle for a bit of both in the middle.

Right clicking the battery/power icon in the taskbar displays a different menu. Click the Power Options menu.

Select a Windows power plan

Either right click the battery/power icon and select Power Options or open the Control Panel and then open Power Options (select small icons for the view if you don’t see it). You can also press Windows+R and enter powercfg.cpl.

It is possible that some power plans are hidden, so click the up/down arrow at the right side of the window. Click the Show additional plans button.

The number of power plans that show here varies from computer to computer. There may be just one power plan or several, as shown here. This is an HP laptop and there is an HP Recommended plan. There is also Power Saver, High Performance and Optimized.

The Optimized plan could be useful and it sets the lowest possible power consumption settings while still being able to run at maximum speed.

Create a power plan

If you don’t see all these power plans, click Create a power plan on the left.

A new power plan is based on the template you select, such as Power saver or High performance.

Customise a PC power plan

Select any power plan in Control Panel > Power Options and then click Change plan settings next to it. There are options to turn off the display and put the computer to sleep after a certain period of time, with separate settings for when running on battery and mains power. Adjust these as required.

Click Change advanced power settings and you can fine tune the power usage to suit the way you work.

Expand each of the sections and customise the On battery and Plugged in settings. My own preference is to leave the On battery settings as they are, so that the battery lasts the maximum length of time. Then I set most of the options to the maximum performance when plugged in. This way I get the best of both worlds and the laptop runs as fast as possible on mains power and more slowly, but with greater power efficiency on battery.

The same effect can be achieved by customizing the High performance power plan and editing the On battery settings to use the minimum power.