Maximize your laptop battery life with windowsOS settings

Maintaining optimal battery life is a difficult task for laptop users . By using optimized power setting on your windows OS and following some maintenance steps you can maximize the battery life of your laptop or any other mobile PC.

1. Optimize power settings

Display and the hard disk are the two biggest power consumer of your laptop’s battery by chosing the right power plan you can make your battery last long . A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that control how your mobile PC manages power.Here are some best power plans for your windows operating system

Windows 7
Windows 7 has two default power plans The Balance Power Plan which Automatically balances performance with energy consumption on capable hardware. And the power saver plan which Saves energy by reducing your computer’s performance where possible. You can select any power plan according to your need by going to your laptop’s notification area on the windows task bar .

Windows Vista
Windows Vista has 3 power plans
1. Balanced : Offers full performance when you need it but conserves power when the computer is idle.
2. Power Saver :The best choice for extending battery life. The cost, however, is slower performance.
3. High Performance : Maximizes system performance at the expense of battery life.
Click on the battery icon at the notification area and select Balanced or Power saver mode according to your performance requirement

Windows XP
Windows XP has two power saver mode Portable/Laptop power scheme which Minimizes the use of power to conserve your battery but adjusts to your processing needs so that the system speed is not sacrificed. The other one is Max battery power scheme which Minimizes power use but does not adjust as your processing demands change. You should use Max Battery only in situations that require minimal processing, such as reading documents and taking notes in a meeting.
Go to the control panel and click on Performance and maintenance then click on power options On the Power Schemes tab of the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the arrow under Power schemes, and then click Max Battery.

2. Make use of hibernate , sleep and standby

Various windows operating system provides various power saving states . Windows 7 offers Sleep and hibernation (deep sleep ) . Windows Vista offers sleep and hybrid sleep (combination of sleep and hibernation) and windows XP offers standby (like sleep) and hibernation .
In sleep state or standby state your display and hard disk turn off, and all open programs and files are saved in random access memory (RAM). In hibernation, your computer saves everything to your hard disk and then shuts down. When you restart the computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. Hibernation uses less power than the sleep state (standby), but it takes a bit longer to resume.So if you are not going to use of laptop for a longer time use hibernation else use sleep or standby

3. Turn off Wireless Device

Wireless devices drain a significant amount of battery power .A lot of power can be saved by turning off your wireless device when you are not connected to a wireless network . Refer to your laptop’s instruction manual on how to turn off wireless device , as each mobile PC has different procedure . In most of the device this feature is available at the task bar .

4. Keep minimum tools at the notification bar

Tools at the notification bar takes a significant amount of CPU . Battery power can be saved by minimizing the CPU usage .Look at the notification area of the taskbar and close any tools (or utilities) that are not necessary. Often, these tools are installed on the computer when you first receive it. Windows 7 users can also click the up arrow at the end of the notification area to see tools and utilities that are hidden but available.

5. Adjust Screen Brightness

A lot of battery power can be conserved by reducing the screen brightness .To adjust your screen brightness, refer to the instructions from your laptop manufacturer.You can also set the screen to get blank when you are not using your laptop. You can further minimize power consumption by reducing the amount of time the computer is idle before the screen goes blank. The power schemes and power plans in Windows let you adjust your power settings to turn off the display after as little as one minute of inactivity.

6. Add Memory

When your RAM is not sufficient to hold the necessary running programs , your system uses hard disk as thevirtual memory , which further drains the battery power . You can check the memory usage from the task manager , if your mobile PC is continuously using more memory than the available RAM , then you need to add more memory to your laptop .

7. Turn off scheduled tasks

If you use scheduled tasks to run programs or scripts, or if you schedule other tasks to occur automatically at a preset time, specify that these tasks won’t be performed when the computer is running on battery power.