Microsoft Has a New Trick To Improve Laptop Battery Life On Windows

Microsoft is testing a new adaptive energy saver mode in Windows 11 that automatically turns energy saver on or off based on system workload instead of battery percentage, aiming to extend laptop battery life without dimming screen brightness. The feature is currently available to Windows Insider testers and expected to roll out later this year. The Verge reports: The energy saver mode in Windows 11 typically dims a display brightness by 30 percent, disables transparency effects, and stop apps running in the background. Non-critical Windows update downloads are also paused, and certain apps like OneDrive, OneNote, and Phone Link may not sync fully while energy saver is enabled. This new adaptive energy saver mode, which will only be available on devices with a battery, will automatically enable or disable without affecting screen brightness. That will make it less noticeable on devices like laptops, tablets, and handhelds.

"Adaptive energy saver is an opt-in feature that automatically enables and disables energy saver, without changing screen brightness, based on the power state of the device and the current system load," explains Microsoft's Windows Insider team.

VTEC!

[Reckoning]

Now for your laptop.

Less processes, obvious choice

[will4]

Microsoft should be able to get a Windows desktop down to 25 or fewer processes after boot up when it is sitting idle.

- Stop letting applications add their own services, just for application updates
- Stop letting add a process at startup or start a permanent background process

And yes, a suspended processes, swapped out to the OS pagefile is not in RAM, but is in all of the OS system tables for process information....

A better trick still?

[jenningsthecat]

It seems to me that Linux is easier on batteries than Windoze is... ;-)

Re:A better trick still?

[caseih]

Is it though? My experience with battery life under Linux is mixed, shall we say. It may well be better than windows; I haven't used windows in many years now. I suspect we're a long ways off of the 12 hour battery life of an M series MacBook.

Re:

[blackomegax]

Yes, actually. My X1 Carbon g9 gets 12 hours on linux pretty trivially (doing light work, youtube, office docs in PWA). same workload in windows is 4-5 hours and the fans never stop screaming because of all the background trash windows 11 runs.

Re:A better trick still?

[viperidaenz]

You can fix that by installing Microsoft Defender for Linux. That'll let your battery know who's boss.

Re:

[blackomegax]

That sounds dumb. Why would anyone do that?

Joking aside, Defender is not the primary user of battery on windows. All the spyware and telemetry is.

Re:

[thegarbz]

It sounds like you don't use Windows very often. The "background trash" windows runs are usually scheduled tasks that when completed leave Windows in the same low power state as Linux. You're likely in a situation where you never give it enough time to complete.

The reality is under controlled tests - i.e. tests where Windows is not judged immediately after first install, (same for Linux, i.e. not building the slocate database) both system perform relatively equally with Windows often coming out slightly ahe

Re:

[blackomegax]

My daily work driver is a similar carbon running windows. The fan *never* stops screaming, even left on for days and days. but the instant you boot it into linux? silent, 2-3 watt average operation. The spyware in windows never sleeps.

Re: A better trick still?

[yuvcifjt]

Instead of judging battery life based on "screaming fans", perhaps take a look if the cpu is doing anything and what, if any process, is involved?

Could just be that you don't have a particular driver installed for the system to manage the fan, something as innocuous as smbus?

Re: A better trick still?

[drinkypoo]

The laptop was designed for Windows and comes with Windows. That won't be a thing.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

You would think. Unless you have useless IT monkeys that install a whole bunch of shit that is constantly doing crap in the background and ruining the experience.

I was given a Dell notebook at my job that should run circles around just about everything with the hardware in there, and it boots and runs slower than a 5 year old Dell because of all the Crowdstrike bullshit, other security agents, the workarounds necessary due to non-admin users for software delivery, etc. It's terrible.

If I could wipe the th

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Yeah, I do have that same shit. It's not a driver problem though, it's a too much bullshit problem. The management agent on my PC sometimes goes rogue and starts using up CPU to an extent which not only causes the fan to throttle up, but actually causes perceptible performance degradation — Even the GUI itself is affected, perhaps exacerbated by the fact that it's an intel-based laptop with integrated graphics. (HP had the gall to sell this fucker as an Elitebook, which used to mean something. Not qua

Re:

[thegarbz]

Then you have something very wrong with your Windows installation. People are usually very quick to blame "Windows" for something that is broken specifically on their machine - either some software they installed that has a bug or some driver that is misbehaving.

Any fan running is not normal on a Windows laptop under normal use. My fan is running now sure but that's because I'm posting on Slashdot while doing a video export. In a few minutes it'll be quiet again and my CPU will be clocked down into a low en

Re:

[buck-yar]

No. Its likely the long list of services that run, or tasks that run in Task Scheduler. Most tasks can simply be deleted. They generate an enormous amount of log files and put load on the PC that doesn't need to be there. There's tutorials on the web how to manage background services with powershell or through the Service program Windows ships with. For example if you don't have a printer, you can stop the print spooler service. This is a good idea security-wise as well as vulnerabilities can be avoided (ev

Re:

[UnknowingFool]

It sounds like you don't use Windows very often. The "background trash" windows runs are usually scheduled tasks that when completed leave Windows in the same low power state as Linux. You're likely in a situation where you never give it enough time to complete.

SteamOS would demonstrate differently. The same hardware with SteamOS would get twice the battery life and with better gaming performance.

The reality is under controlled tests - i.e. tests where Windows is not judged immediately after first install, (same for Linux, i.e. not building the slocate database) both system perform relatively equally with Windows often coming out slightly ahead.

See SteamOS

Re:

[eneville]

Would it be mixed due to mixed HW? Different components have different current usage.

Re:

[thegarbz]

It seems to me that Linux is easier on batteries than Windoze is... ;-)

Funny. On multiple levels. On the one side you wrote Windoze implying that Windows spends more time sleeping that Linux does. And you may have a point there. Many comparisons show Linux lags in battery life compared to Windows. Some do show the other way. The reality is battery life is always a complex combination of software, drivers, and current working state.

Re:

[tijgertje]

On fully supported hardware Linux has better battery life then Windows.
My laptop has Linux installed from the OEM and it reaches 10 hour battery life without issue with coding.
Last time I went to a co-work place 2 hours train away I did not even bother to bring the charger with me.

Re:

[thegarbz]

On fully supported hardware Linux has better battery life then Windows.

Saying something doesn't make it so. There are plenty of examples online where actual tests show battery life is a wash between the OSes.

Re: A better trick still?

[drinkypoo]

Linux historically had battery life problems because power saving was not good, but modern kernels have got good support for modern systems' equipment in most cases. Now you're mostly ok with drivers in general (as in, not just for power saving) unless you have an Nvidia card.

Re:

[jenningsthecat]

It seems to me that Linux is easier on batteries than Windoze is... ;-)

On the one side you wrote Windoze implying that Windows spends more time sleeping that Linux does.

I didn't imply that Windows spends more time sleeping - you inferred it. The doziness I had in mind was that of continuing to support a company whose product spies on its customers, makes it difficult to choose an alternative browser and search engine, forces unwanted upgrades, makes older hardware obsolete on purpose, and does its best to take away choice at every turn.

I understand that some people need to use Windows. I understand the need for honesty and accuracy in evaluating and reporting OS performanc

Re:

[Luckyo]

Depends on battery management of that specific model. Sometimes it's a bit better, and sometimes it's a lot worse.

In general Linux will run less background crap (telemetry etc) so CPU will spend longer in lower power states. But model specific optimizations will be worse.

Re:

[MachineShedFred]

Say what you will about Windows (and I've said quite a bit) but it's power management does seem to be better about reaching lower C-states than Linux on the same hardware. I routinely see better battery life on Windows than Linux, but also routinely see more productivity on Linux than dealing with all the Windows bullshit, so it's probably a wash in the end.

Re:

[jonadab]

Depends on which version of each respective OS we're talking about (especially on the Windows side), and on your system specs, and also on what software you're running; but mostly, yes. Especially these days.

If they really want to save battery life and improve performance, they should start by fixing the Windows Updates system so it doesn't try to store half the internet in virtual memory whenever it's downloading updates, because that results in a *lot* of swapping; and relatedly they should rip out the E

Welcome To The Club

[WankerWeasel]

So they're doing what Apple has done for more than a decade. Got it.

Re:

[Errol backfiring]

They are basically doing what the MIDI sequencer on the commodore 64 was doing in the 80s.

I also have a trick

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Turn off all those power wasting crap MS provides. MS Teams, gone. Copilot, gone. OneDrive, gone. I wish I could get rid of the SearchApp and a bunch of those other things I do not use or need.

Re:

[Luckyo]

You can. You just need to bake it into ISO you install from. It's much more difficult to get rid of that crap once it's installed.

Re:

[mjwx]

Turn off all those power wasting crap MS provides. MS Teams, gone. Copilot, gone. OneDrive, gone. I wish I could get rid of the SearchApp and a bunch of those other things I do not use or need.

With recent laptops we're encountering a dual issue of smaller batteries to save weight and more power hungry processors.

Both my work and personal laptops now have AMD processors and 3 cell batteries, both have poor battery life. I don't mind as I prefer a more powerful processor (which the AMD is to the equivalently priced Intel) and am not usually away from a power source for that long anyway. My old 2017 Asus (i5) still gets 10 hours battery life but the 2022 model I replaced it with (Ryzen 5) only ge

Why so much shit?

[viperidaenz]

Why are transparency effects enabled by default?
Why are automatic updates happening while on battery power?

Re:

[eneville]

More to the point, is always on battery (charge at home, use on train) do you ever get an update?

Re:

[daveron]

So much BS that all has its own separate background update processes. Every time I ever use my laptop it freezes up for hours while updates for various built in microsoft apps download and bog everything down. No matter how long I wait SOEMTHING is ALWAYS in the back ground downloading files, running scans, and logging stuff. I've never seen a single time where less than 20 files where being read or written to by background system processes in the last 10 years on any of my mobile microsoft devices, any tim

Re:

[buck-yar]

Last 10 years Microsoft ran out of things to do with an OS. Where do you go from Windows 7? Its like a band that tapped all its musical creativity but still needs money. They're filling the OS with shovelware garbage. The good programmers like Dave Plummer retired and now the new generation doesn't know how to maintain their code, or even code themselves (need AI to do it for them). They've ended up getting people to buy their product by forced obsolense rather than offereing a better product. Ever since ab

Re:

[martin-boundary]

Who want to get a shiny new laptop for Christmas, unwrap it, unbox it, open the clamshell, press the power button, and be told that the system won't start until they plug it into a power outlet, and if they also want transparency effects like Apple they need to first learn how to click on an obscure icon, navigate a bunch of hierarchical menus with weird titles, and click a very particular checkbox. And then potentially reboot.

I believe *that* is why.

Why not save energy on desktops too?

[wtvrtje]

A pity this is for laptops only. Why not save some energy on desktops too. It does not sound as if this would cost a lot of user experience and it would save some money and electricity.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Because in desktop usage, you don't care about fractions of a watt per hour. But it is extremely annoying when power saving features kick in when you don't want them to, and slow system down or suspend/terminate processes you actually want running.

Just stop running so much needless crap

[devslash0]

...as a part of your operating system and you won't need a batter saver.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Are you implying that Windows sits there unused and people don't actually use their laptops? Yes battery saving functions are a good thing, especially when they dynamically adjust to workload. You're begging the question when you say something is unneeded. You never asked the user.

Another device....

[aegisqc]

Oh well, another device that I will have to look for "how to disable the enshittificated battery management on this device so that my apps and the rest function as desired and expected".

Thanks Microsoft.

Microsoft innovates power saving mode :|

[Mirnotoriety]

Steve Jobs must have contemporaneously stolen Microsoft's innovation, invented a time machine, and gone back to 1991 to put power-saving mode in the PowerBook 100

Re:

[thegarbz]

Yes if your entire knowledge on power saving is the result of only ever reading Slashdot headlines you may think so. I'm not sure if you were going with a funny mod, but you come across quite silly. No Jobs didn't have a similar power saving mode in 1991.

Re:

[_merlin]

Of course not - Jobs had been outsted from Apple by then. Jean-Louis Gassee was the product manager, and they got Sony to help with the design of the PowerBook 100.

Another Microsoft-Only Feature--For Them

[BrendaEM]

There were no features in Windows 11, for the users. Most of the "features" put into Windows in the last 10 years--have not benefited the user, but instead for Microsoft, such as file "Groups" is likely just to get the client to presort or AI learning. It used to be that the user could have 3 power profiles present, and switch from the Task Bar, but no longer. We used to be able to send more than one file on Bluetooth file transfer, not any longer. We used to be able to sort/filter the Windows System logs