4 Tricks You Should Do to Extend Battery Life in Windows 11
There is nothing worse than running out of battery in the middle of an important task such as a meeting or job interview, but despite everything, we may still face such difficult situations from time to time. The ideal solution is to have your laptop connected to electricity, but to avoid this problem, here are 4 tips and tricks to extend battery life in Windows 11.
- Stop apps from updating in the background when you're not using them.
Applications work in the background even when you are not using them. For example, they inform you of notifications or simply display advertisements every now and then, which may be useful sometimes, but if your battery capacity is low, you must stop applications from working in the background. This is how:
Open Settings, then choose System.
Click on Power & battery.
Under the Battery heading, click on the Activate Now button (you must disconnect the computer from the electricity)
Once the option is enabled, some non-essential notifications and background processes will be reduced which will increase battery life.
You can also modify some options to get a longer period, such as the battery percentage at which the power saving option is activated, or the screen brightness level when using the battery only without connecting the charger.
- Reduce the screen refresh rate.
Refresh rate is the number of times the image is refreshed on the screen per second, meaning that the higher the refresh rate, the clearer and better the image and movement. For example, if you want to watch a movie or play a game, you want the refresh rate to be at the highest possible value, but for the battery, increasing the refresh rate also means increasing consumption, so if you are not doing something that requires a super clear image, you should reduce the refresh rate to preserve battery life for the longest possible period, and this is the method:
Open Settings, then choose System.
Go to Display, then choose Advanced Display.
Then change the number near Choose a refresh rate.
The numbers may vary from computer to computer, but if you find only one number, this means that you cannot change the refresh rate.
Note: Reducing the refresh rate helps extend battery life, but it may affect your ability to work efficiently on the computer, as some tasks may become more difficult.
- Use a dark background or enable dark themes.
If your computer screen is OLED, you should change the background to a darker or black one because OLED screens have a separate power source for each pixel (small lights that are the unit of building the image in the screen), meaning that when you use a black background or activate a dark mode, some lights will not work on the screen, which means less power is used.
Open Settings and select Personalization.
At the top of the screen, choose one of the modes that contain dark colors.
And change the background image to a dark one as well.
- Reduce the time required to turn off the screen.
The longer the screen is active, the more battery is consumed, so you should reduce the amount of time the screen is active when you are not using it.
Open Settings, then choose System.
Click on Power & battery.
Under the Power heading, you will find a number of options for the duration you want the screen to remain active. Choose the shortest possible duration that suits you, but you must choose it in the On Battery state, i.e. when the computer is running on battery power and is not connected to electricity.