Windows 10 also comes with a battery power plan, which is, by default, set on Balanced. However, users can change the settings to work longer with limited battery or choose advance settings to consume more power. When the system is on battery, you can opt for a shorter time to go on a sleep mode and low brightness for a display to save power. When it is connected to the power outlet, you can set the system to awake longer and up the brightness accordingly. Windows detect the change in power source and change the profile automatically after settings the power plan. In this post, we will share how you can quickly switch between battery modes or Power Plans in Windows 10.
How to quickly switch between Battery Modes or Power Plans in Windows 10
If you want a faster way to switch between battery modes or Power Plan, there are three ways of doing it. While the first method switches the Battery Modes, the later two offers to switch between Power Plan, which most of the users would like to do often.
- Change Battery Mode from System Tray
- Power Plan Switcher
- Command Prompt Shortcut
Battery mode works when you are in a balanced Power Plan. If you choose any other plan, it will not display the option to change its settings.
1] Change Battery Mode from System Tray
Windows 10 offers you to change battery mode from System Tray. However, these are the built-in solution from Windows, and not related to Power Plans.
- Click on the Power icon located on the right side in the notification area
- Then you can drag, and choose between four settings
- Best or Better performance
- Best or Better Battery
When in the Best performance, there will be no limitation on background service or tasks, while Better battery makes sure the least apps get access to background services. I would suggest either use a better battery or better performance for the best results. Find out how effectively you can use battery saver mode.
2] Power Plan Switcher
It’s a Microsoft Store Apps which ads a flyout to switch between Power Plan Settings. Once installed, it will be available in the system tray. Click on it, and you can switch between different Power Plans available on the computer. If you haven’t created a Battery Power Plan, it will show only one.
You can further assign triggers or situations for each of the modes—Right-click on the icon and select Settings. Here you can choose one of the plans when on AC or off AC, automatically change the schema when on AC. To make it even faster, enable the shortcut to show the flyout, which is Shift + Win + L., You can then use the arrow keys to change the Power Plan.
Download from Microsoft Store
3] Create Command Prompt Shortcut to Switch Power Plan
You can create and execute a command line shortcut to switch the power plan quickly, but before you do so, you need to know the unique GUID assigned to each power plant. To get the information of every configured power plan and their respective GUIDs, you need to use it.
- Right Click on Start Menu
- Select PowerShell (Admin) from the list
- Type powercfg /l
- The list of power schemes, along with their GUIDs, will appear on the screen, make a note of the GUID of the power plan for which you are going to create the shortcut.
- Open notepad and type powercfg /s <GUID of that power plan>
- Save this file with the Cmd extension and the name of the power scheme so that you can recognize it later. For example High Performance.cmd
It is advisable to save the file on the desktop to access it easily. Each time when you will run this file, it will automatically switch to the corresponding power plan. When you create a new power plan, it will appear in the list.
I hope the post was easy to follow, and you were able to quickly switch between Battery Modes or Power Plan in Windows 10.