power-plan

In today's guide I am going to teach you how to manage your computers power/performance.

Let's get started.

You have 3 main power sources on your computer.

• Balanced - Balances out your power and performance.
• Power Saver - lowers your performance and increases your battery.
• High Performance - lowers your battery and increases your performance.

Personally, I use the "High Performance" because my laptop is plugged in almost 24/7 so I don't have to worry about my battery dying. I rather have the performance increase.

Even if you chose to have "High Performance", if you have it unplugged and your using it from another spot in your house the battery should last about 25 minutes (mines exactly 31 minutes).

For the average person who never has their laptop plugged in, although there is the "Power Saver" option, i still recommend using "Balanced" due to the fact that the battery difference is only 2 minutes, but the performance is greatly changed.

Now, lets see how to change our options.

First thing is first, Go to your start button and click "Control Panel." If you have done so correctly, a screen should pop up that looks like this one ;



If you have done this correctly, and this box as appeared you are going to want to click the "System and Maintenance." Once you have done that your previous screen should switch to the "System and Maintenance" where you should then see the option "Power Options", click that and you should come to a screen that looks like this ;



Now as you can see, your screen is showing the 3 main power options I explained to you before ;

• Balanced - Balances out your power and performance.
• Power Saver - lowers your performance and increases your battery.
• High Performance - lowers your battery and increases your performance.

Now you can chose either one, as you can see I have selected "High Performance." Chose the one that best fits you. Maybe none of them are appropriate for you? No need to worry, I'm going to show you how to make your own.

Since you are already in "Control Panel" , "System Maintenance" and "Power Options" go ahead and look to the left, where you should see a option of "Create A Power Plan"
once you have clicked it, you should get a screen that looks like this ;



Now as you can see, once again you have the selections ;

• Balanced - Balances out your power and performance.
• Power Saver - lowers your performance and increases your battery.
• High Performance - lowers your battery and increases your performance.

Now, you are going to have to pick one to be able to edit and make your own power connection, I choose the "High Performance." Once you have clicked the one that you want to edit, name your power source, as you can see I named mine mu-b.

Once you have selected a power source, and made a name click "Next." Now, your screen should switch to look something exactly, or very similar to this ;



Now, your probably looking at this wondering "What the heck!" Well, no worries this is the easy part.

As you can see you have options that say ;

"Turn off the display" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In"
"Put the computer to sleep" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In"
"Adjust display brightness" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In"

For "Turn off the display" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In" it's pretty simple. Depending on what you want, you can switch. If you want your performance to be better, for the "On Battery" you put "20" or "Never" do the same for "Plugged In"

For "Put the computer to sleep" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In" it's also pretty simple. Depending on that you want, you can switch the times. For this one however, I usually change mine to "Never" because I want a better performance.

For "Adjust display brightness" ---> "On Battery" "Plugged In" I would really keep that the same, don't change anything for that.

Now keep in mind when changing the times for these options. The lower in times you go, the better performance you will have but also a decrease in battery power. The higher you go in time the worse your performance is, but the better your battery increases.

Once you have done this, you will get a screen that looks similar to this ;



As you can see, your power source has successfully been added.

Now, just a little extra thing you can do if you want or don't want to do. It's up to you.

To the left, you have an option that says "Choose what power buttons do" if you click it you will get a screen that looks like this.



Now, here you can choose what your button's do. Your shut down button, your sleep/hibernate button or when you close the lid to your laptop. Now personally, I don't change these but some people like to. If you want to change it you can, if not you can go ahead and click cancel.

Well, that's the guide I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making it for you guys.

Thank you to anyone who read this.

Any questions? No problem, PM me or leave a post here and I will be more then happy to answer your question.

Thanks again.

 

This is awesome dude! I personally use the high performance one because if I use power saver, my computer lags like hell.

Keep up the good work dude!

 

Yea, Balance and Power Saver slows your computer down more then you can imagine. I recommend High Performance for everyone that has these options.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, I really appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to read it too.