The Dimmed display brightness setting in Power Options allows users to specify the brightness level in percentage for when your display is dimmmed after the dim display after idle timeout has been reached. This setting applies only to portable computers (ex: laptop or tablet) that support Windows control of the brightness level of an integrated display device.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Dimmed display brightness setting under Display in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Dim display after setting in Power Options allows users to specify how long in minutes your computer is inactive before the display dims. This setting applies only to portable computers (ex: laptop or tablet) that support Windows control of the brightness level of an integrated display device.
If you did not originally have the Dim display after setting available, then it means it is not supported on your computer. Instead, the display will automatically dim by the set Dimmed display brightness percentage exactly 10 seconds before the specified Turn off display after time.
If Dim display after is set to 0 minutes, then the display will not dim.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Dim display after setting under Display in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
If you have a laptop or tablet, you might need to occasionally change the screen brightness. For example, if you want to use your laptop outdoors on a sunny day, you might need a brighter screen to see the display clearly. Or, if you’re in a dark room, you might want to make the screen less bright.
A brighter display uses more power, which reduces battery life.
The Display brightness setting in Power Options let’s users specify the default display brightness level. This setting applies only to portable computers that support Windows control of the brightness level of an integrated display device.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Display brightness setting under Display in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Maximum processor state setting in Power Options allows users to specify the maximum percentage of processor capabilities to use. Lower percentage may result in significantly better battery life, but possibly lower performance.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Maximum processor state setting under Processor power management in Power Options for all users in Windows 10.
The Minimum processor state setting in Power Options allows users to specify the minimum percentage of processor capabilities to use. Lower percentage may result in significantly better battery life, but possibly lower performance.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Minimum processor state setting under Processor power management in Power Options for all users in Windows 10.
The System cooling policy setting in Power Options allows users to specify an active or passive cooling mode for the system.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the System cooling policy setting under Processor power management in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Enable forced button/lid shutdown setting in Power Options lets users turn on or off to perform a forced shutdown when the lid is closed or the power button is pressed if the Lid close action and/or Power button action is set to Shut down.
When Enable forced button/lid shutdown is turned off (default), a normal system shutdown will be performed.
When Enable forced button/lid shutdown is turned on, a forced system shutdown will be performed. A forced shutdown will force running apps to close without forewarning users.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Enable forced button/lid shutdown setting under Power buttons and lid in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Lid close action setting in Power Options lets users specify the default action to take when the laptop (system) lid is closed.
Users can specify one of the following actions to take: do nothing, sleep, hibernate, or shut down.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Lid close action setting under Power buttons and lid in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Lid open action setting (if supported) in Power Options lets users specify the default action to take when the laptop (system) lid is opened.
Users can specify one of the following actions to take: do nothing or turn on the display.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Lid open action setting under Power buttons and lid in Power Options for all users in Windows 10.
The Sleep button action setting in Power Options lets users specify the default action to take when the system hardware sleep button (if available) on the PC is pressed.
Users can specify one of the following actions to take: do nothing, sleep, hibernate, or shut down.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Sleep button action setting under Power buttons and lid in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Power button action setting in Power Options lets users specify the default action to take when the system hardware power button on the PC is pressed.
Users can specify one of the following actions to take: do nothing, sleep, hibernate, shut down, or turn off the display.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Power button action setting under Power buttons and lid in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
In the Windows 10 Creators Update version 1703 (build 15063) and later, the SEC NVMe Idle Timeout setting in Power Options lets users set to have NVMe devices power down after a specified time in milliseconds of inactivity is detected.
By default, SEC NVMe Idle Timeout is set to 100 milliseconds on battery and 200 milliseconds plugged in.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the SEC NVMe Idle Timeout setting under Hard disk in Power Options for all users in Windows 10.
The AHCI Link Power Management – HIPM/DIPM setting in Power Options allows users to configure the link power management mode for disk and storage devices that are attached to the system through an AHCI interface. AHCI Link Power Management is a technique where the SATA AHCI controller puts the SATA link to the internal HDD and/or SSD disk into a very low power mode when there.
The AHCI Link Power Management – Adaptive setting in Power Options specifies the period of AHCI link idle time in milliseconds before the link is put into a slumber state when Host-Initiated Power Management (HIPM) or Device-Initiated Power Management (DIPM) is enabled.
By default, AHCI Link Power Management – Adaptive is set to 0 (Only use partial state).
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the AHCI Link Power Management – Adaptive setting under Hard disk in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
Having your HDDs automatically turned off after being idle can help save energy and extend a PC’s battery life.
The Turn off hard disk after setting in Power Options lets users set to have hard disks (HDD) power down after a specified time of HDD inactivity is detected.
Some Windows systems might exhibit very small amounts (bursts) of disk activity separated by relatively long amounts of disk idle time. This pattern of disk activity impacts system power savings because the disk is powered up periodically. The disk then remains in the spin-up state for at least the disk idle time‑out, even if the amount of disk activity that caused the disk to spin up is very small.
The Hard disk burst ignore time setting in Power Options lets users ignore this burst of disk activity up to a specified time when the Turn off hard disk after setting is determining if a hard disk is idle. By default, Hard disk burst ignore time is set to 0 (do not ignore disk burst activity).
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Hard disk burst ignore time setting under Hard disk in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
Starting with Windows 10 Spring Creators Update version 1803 build 17101, Microsoft introduces a new Ultimate Performance power plan scheme.
A new power scheme – Ultimate Performance: Demanding workloads on workstations always desire more performance. As part of our effort to provide the absolute maximum performance we’re introducing a new power policy called Ultimate Performance. Windows has developed key areas where performance and efficiency tradeoffs are made in the OS. Over time, we’ve amassed a collection of settings which allow the OS to quickly tune the behavior based on user preference, policy, underlying hardware or workload.
This new policy builds on the current High-Performance policy, and it goes a step further to eliminate micro-latencies associated with fine grained power management techniques. The Ultimate Performance Power plan is selectable either by an OEM on new systems or selectable by a user. To do so, you can go to Control Panel and navigate to Power Options under Hardware and Sound (you can also “run” Powercfg.cpl). Just like other power policies in Windows, the contents of the Ultimate Performance policy can be customized.
As the power scheme is geared towards reducing micro-latencies it may directly impact hardware; and consume more power than the default balanced plan. The Ultimate Performance power policy is currently not available on battery powered systems.
While Microsoft has restricted the new Ultimate Performance power plan to only be available for the Windows 10 Pro for Workstations edition by default, it can easily be enabled (added) in any edition of Windows 10 version 1803 (build 17101) and later.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Ultimate Performance power plan scheme in any edition of Windows 10 version 1803 and later.
The Power menu in Windows 10 can allow users to sleep, hibernate, shut down, or restart the PC without having to sign in to Windows.
This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable Shut Down, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate in the Power menu for specific or all users in Windows 10.
The Battery setting in Power Options allows you to configure notification and action settings you want when your battery reaches a set low and critical level.
By default, when your battery reaches a low or critical level, you will get a “Your battery is running low” (low) or “Your battery is very low” (critical) notification before the set action is taken.
This tutorial will show you how to change the low and critical battery notification, level, and action settings for your active power plan in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The USB selective suspend setting under USB settings in Power Options allows users to specify whether USB selective suspend is turned on or off.
The USB selective suspend feature allows the hub driver to suspend an individual port without affecting the operation of the other ports on the hub. Selective suspension of USB devices is especially useful in portable computers, since it helps conserve battery power. Many devices, such as fingerprint readers and other kinds of biometric scanners, only require power intermittently. Suspending such devices, when the device is not in use, reduces overall power consumption.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the USB selective suspend setting under USB settings in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
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Link State Power Management is a part of the PCI Express Power Management Settings in Power Options that allows users to specify the Active State Power Management (ASPM) policy to use for capable links when the link is idle.
The link state of a PCIe device is converted from L0 (on) to L1 (off) when the link is not transferring data. The hardware is automatically converted to L0 again when data is available to transfer across the link.
There are basically 2 levels of power management in the PCI Express options. The difference between these 2 options are the power savings versus the latency (Time to recover from the Sleep state).
Users can specify the following ASPM policies below:
Off = Turn off ASPM for all links.
Moderate power savings = The system attempts to use the L0 state when the link is idle.
Maximum power savings = The system attempts to use the L1 state when the link is idle.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Link State Power Management setting under PCI Express in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
The Video playback quality bias. setting under Multimedia settings in Power Options allows users to specify the policy to bias video playback quality.
Users can specify the following policies below:
Video playback power-saving bias. = Video playback quality would be biased towards battery life.
Video playback performance bias. = Video playback quality would be biased towards performance.
This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Video playback quality bias. setting under Multimedia settings in Power Options for all users in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.