Battery life is always a concern among laptop users, so here are a few ways to help maximize your laptop’s battery life in Windows 11. One of the easiest and most basic things that you can do is to adjust your screen brightness. Locate the battery icon in the taskbar and click on it. Among the options in the pop-up window is a brightness slider bar. Use this to manually adjust the screen brightness level. The lower the brightness level, the better the battery life. On the top row of most PC keyboards, there are brightness icon buttons that you can use to make quick adjustments to the screen brightness level.
Another quick and easy tip is to turn off your Bluetooth when you’re not using it. Click on the Bluetooth button to disconnect or reconnect the Bluetooth signal. To get the facts that debunk common laptop battery beliefs, watch our video about laptop battery myths by clicking on the link shown. For a more comprehensive approach to improving battery life, make adjustments to the power consumption and choose from an array of battery options. In the taskbar, click on the battery icon. Then in the pop-up window, click on the battery icon with the percentage of current battery level remaining.
This will open the power and battery settings for the system. In the “Power” section, you can choose between the three different power modes. “Best power efficiency” allows the system to extend battery life by sacrificing performance. This is a good choice when you need to use the device for longer periods without being able to charge it. “Balanced” maintains a relative balance between performance and power consumption, although it will favor performance over battery life when necessary. “Best performance” is your go-to option when you need to get the most out of your device.
The trade-off is a significant reduction in battery life. Also in the “Power” section, go into “Screen and sleep” to determine how much time before your screen turns off and when your device is put to sleep. This can be anywhere from one minute up to a few hours. Each has settings for when your PC is operating solely on battery, or when it’s plugged in. In the “Battery” section, turn on “Battery saver”. When activated, battery saver supersedes power mode and will change that setting for best battery life, which will affect performance. Also, some notifications and background activity is limited. Here is where you can set the battery level to when you want battery conservation to increase. The default setting is 20%, but percentages range from zero, “Never”, to “Always”, 100.
There is also the option for the screen brightness to be lowered automatically when the battery saver is on. To learn the ways to check the battery health status of your Dell laptop, click the link shown. Once you’ve decided on these settings, you can use the pop-up window to easily turn the battery saver on or off. Also in the “Battery” section, expanding “Battery usage” will reveal the details of the same power consumption bar graph represented at the top of the page.
You can select between viewing the last 24 hours or the last seven days. Scroll down to see the list of apps being used, along with their consumption. Ultimately, it's best to keep apps closed until you need to use them. However, you can instruct Windows to run an app in the background, or run only when actively being used. Do this by clicking the three dots, then click “Manage background activity”. Under “Background apps permissions”, use the drop-down “Let this app run in background”, and select one of the three options. “Power optimized” lets Windows decide the background activity of the app, prioritizing the power mode selected.
“Always” will allow permission to always keep the app running in the background, and “Never” restricts the app to only run while being actively used. Take advantage of all these settings and change them as your needs change. If you have battery issues, click the links shown to read our article on quick-step resolutions for common symptoms.
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