In this video I’ll be showing you ten easy ways to increase your battery life on a Windows
10 laptop other than just using battery saver when your battery gets below a certain percentage.
No matter your computer experience you should be able to follow along with all the methods
I have. Remember to leave a like if the video helps and feel free to subscribe for more
tips in the future. Some of the tips I have you might have already done, but hopefully
there’s some that make a difference. Let’s get into the first method.
The first method will be to turn on power saver mode in the power settings. This is
different to battery saver mode, as it will run all of the time. You shouldn’t notice
too much of a performance difference but there should be an increase in your battery life
as your components won’t be working as hard. To change the power settings to power saver
mode, you need to go to the control panel first. You can get there by searching for
it in the search bar. In the control panel, click on system and security and then choose
power options from the list. In the power settings, you might need to click on show
additional plans to get the power saver option. Check the box to the left of power saver to
turn it on. You can always choose balanced if you were already on high performance, so
you don’t lose too much performance whilst still saving battery. If you click on change
plan settings, you can edit the time your PC will stay on. You will be able to change
the options for both when on power and when on battery. Feel free to change these, and
the shorter the time is, the more you will save your battery when you are away from your
laptop. Whilst we’re in the power settings, we’ll
move on to the second method. You can skip this one if you like if you don’t feel comfortable
in changing some of these settings. If you are still in the edit plan settings page of
the power saver mode we selected, then click on change advanced power settings to open
a new window. In these advanced settings, first find the option called sleep and click
on it to expand it. There are a few more options that we can change in here, such as turning
on hibernate. Now find the option called processor power management and expand it and expand
the option called maximum processor state. You should see two options, with one that
says on battery. Feel free to change this number to something like 80% initially on
battery. This will limit your processor to 80% and will save battery but you will lose
some performance obviously, especially when running demanding programs, so if it’s not
worth it then you can return to here to change it back to 100%. If you find that 80% doesn’t
make much of a difference to the performance, then you could even go lower to save more
battery. Remember to click apply to save any changes that you’ve made.
Leave this window open for the third method as we’re going to focus on brightness next.
Find the option called display and click on it to expand it. You should see more options
than me but find the one called enable adaptive brightness and expand that. If you want to,
you can turn it on for when your laptop is on battery. If you don’t like adaptive brightness,
then if you leave it off, you can change the brightness in the power plan settings screen,
which was the page we were on before this window opened, and it should still be open
in the control panel. You can change the brightness for both when on power and also when using
the battery. The fourth method to extend your laptop’s
battery life is to run the power troubleshooter. This is a tool that comes with Windows 10
and it should help us find any specific problems that could be causing your battery to run
down quicker. To run the power troubleshooter, first go to the main settings page. You can
get there by clicking on the cog icon within the start menu. In settings, go to update
and security. Now find troubleshoot from the options on the left side. In the troubleshoot
settings, scroll down until you find the one called power. Click on it and then select
run the troubleshooter. Allow Windows to look for and suggest any possible solutions that
might help. The fifth method to save battery on your Windows
10 laptop is to prevent certain apps from running when you start up your PC. Not only
will the apps cause your PC to take longer to start up, but they will run in the background
which will result in your laptop having to do more work than necessary. To view and disable
start-up programs you first need to go to the task manager. You can get there by right
clicking on the taskbar at the bottom and then choosing task manager. In the task manager
find the start up tab and now you should see the list of programs that can automatically
start when you turn on your laptop. You’ll need to go down the list and look for any
programs you know you don’t use, or those that you don’t use regularly. Disabling
them in here won’t make them stop working, however they might take a bit longer to run
when you want to use them. But of course, if you don’t use them that often, this won’t
make too much difference. To disable an application in here, all you need to do is right click
on it and then choose ‘disable’. It’s helpful to look at the start up impact column
to help make your decision on whether it’s worth disabling them. You can always enable
the program again by right clicking on it and selecting enable.
For the next method, we’re going to do something similar to disabling the start up programs.
If you find the small up arrow towards the right side of the taskbar and click on it
you’ll see some of the apps that are currently running in the background. Choose a program
that you don’t use and right click on it. If I choose Chrome for example, I can prevent
it from running in the background which it is currently set to do. Also, click on exit
for any of the apps you aren’t using to close them fully. Running fewer programs in
the background will speed up your PC as well as easing the load on the components for it
to run using less energy. The seventh method to save battery on your
laptop is to make sure Bluetooth is turned off if you have it as well as turning off
Wi-Fi when not using it. Although this might be rare if you really need to save battery,
turning these off will definitely save it. Thankfully, in Windows 10 it’s easy to turn
off Bluetooth. All you need to do is go to the main settings page which can be accessed
by clicking on the cog icon within the start menu. In settings, click on devices and if
you’re laptop has Bluetooth then you can turn it off with the slider at the top. For
when you want to turn off Wi-Fi, that can be done by clicking on the network icon in
the taskbar and then by clicking on where it says Wi-Fi at the bottom.
The next method is quite simple, all you need to do is unplug any peripheral devices from
your laptop if you have any when you are not using them. Any device, such as a wired mouse
or USB stick might draw unnecessary power from your laptop’s battery so if you keep
them unplugged when not in use you should see a slight increase in battery life.
For the ninth method we’re going to first use Windows 10’s own disk clean-up tool.
This will help us remove any unnecessary files that might slow down your laptop. If we clean
our drive, it makes your laptop optimised and it will run more efficiently, saving battery
life. To get to the automatic clean-up tool, simply search disk clean up and click on it
to open it. Check the boxes of any of the files you are happy to delete, such as the
contents of the recycle bin. Double check as I don’t want you delete any files you
want to keep. Click OK and then delete files once you’re happy to run it. As well as
disk clean up, if you now go to the main settings page, which can be accessed by clicking on
the cog icon within the start menu. And now click on system and then choose storage from
the options on the left. You can first turn on storage sense if it isn’t already and
now click on the blue “configure storage sense or run it now” link below this to
open the settings. You can change the frequency that storage sense will run at the top, feel
free to make this whatever you want depending on your situation. If you want, you can check
the box below this to delete temporary files and set it to delete files that have been
in your recycle bin and downloads folder for over 30 days. If you’re confident you don’t
need any of these files, then you can run storage sense now by clicking on the clean
now button at the bottom. This should free up some space and improve your PC’s performance.
Also, if you go back to the main storage settings page by clicking the back button, you can
see the types of files that are taking up the most space on your PC. You might notice
that apps take up most of the space and just like I mentioned earlier, you can uninstall
the ones that you don’t use. It’s easy to uninstall an app from here, all you need
to do is click on where it says apps and features, then find the apps you want to delete. Click
on them and select uninstall. You can do this for some of the other sections in the storage
settings, for example deleting videos if they take up a lot of the space on your computer.
Finally, the tenth method to save battery life is to physically clean your laptop and
especially the vents. The cooler your laptop can run the less the fans will be required
and the more efficient it will be, extending your battery life.
And those are 10 easy methods I have. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them
in the comments and let me know of any video suggestions too. I hope I was able to help
you extend your laptop’s battery life today, if the video helped make sure you leave a
like and feel free to subscribe – it really helps me out! Thanks for watching and I will
see you in another video.