We earn commission when you buy through affiliate links.
This does not influence our reviews or recommendations.Learn more.
Heres how to access them:
Right-press the start menu and selectPower Optionsfrom the list.
This will open thePower & sleeppage; press theAdditional power settingslink in the right panel.
You will now see three power plans here,Balanced,High Performance, andPower saver.
It doesnt matter which plan you choose here as all have the same options that you will customize anyway.
Click onChange plan settingsnext to your preferred power plan.
Here click onChange advanced power settingslink, and youll be ready to edit the power options explained below.
So double-check you adjust the prefs considering these scenarios.
A hard drive continuously spins to read and write data, which of course, consumes power.
This power setting will stop the hard drive from spinning after a specified idle time to save power.
My recommendation:keep this option enabled, and the default 20min timer is perfect too.
And a tiny one-time delay when you access your PC after a long idle time shouldnt hamper your experience.
This option only affects users who are still using Internet Explorer; other users can skip it.
It basically allows you to manage how Internet Explorer manages Javascript in the net surf tool.
Although on power-saving mode, it will slow down the performance of JavaScript to save power.
My recommendation:Honestly, this option solely depends on what you want; there is no in-between.
Do you want to save power?
Do you want to have the best performance while browsing?
Again, this option is only worth tweaking if you actually use slideshow wallpaper.
you might selectPausedto disable this feature orAvailableto enable it.
This feature has no performance advantage, so its just an unnecessary power drain for a more lively desktop.
I am sure you wont prioritize a lively desktop over the battery to run out on you anytime.
The easy solution is to keep it atMaximum Performancestate and have no worries about data pipe problems.
If you are not using the internet at all, you should put it on Maximum Power Saving mode.
This becomes worse if you frequently change networks and wont check each networks details.
Ill say keep it at Maximum Performance if you dont want online grid issues.
These options will see to it your PC goes to sleep or hibernate when left idle for whatever reason.
In the sleep state, the PC hardly uses 10-15 watts of power.
Heres agreat answer on Super Userthat explains sleep power consumption very well.
It would help if you made your PC automatically sleep after 10-20min idle time using this option.
Although most apps today are programmed to stop Windows from going into sleep mode while they are running.
This helps save even more power and wont risk your data.
It would be best if you automatically hibernated at least twice as much time after automatic sleep triggers.
If you have such important tasks on the PC, you should enable this option to complete.
Usually, there is no downside to enabling this option, but it can mess with some USB devices.
keep a constant link usingPCI Express.
The maximum power saving option will save more power but will add higher latency while creating the link.
Similarly, the moderate power saving option will save a little less power in exchange for less latency.
This option will not interfere in your active use of the PC.
If that happens to you, turn off this option.
Below is an explanation of the options here.
The minimum processor state is the important option here, which configures the constant speed of the CPU.
You should keep the minimum processor speed to 5-10% even when you prefer performance over power saving.
Here you will see the CPU speed change under theCPUsection when you will change the minimum processor speed.
This option lets you decide how your PC will cool down with two options to select;ActiveandPassive.
The PC performance will only slow down when even the fan cant keep the PC cool.
InPassivecooling policy, Windows will first slow down the performance to cool down the PC.
If that doesnt work, then it will launch the fan fast to cool the PC.
If you will use the PC for heavy tasks, then using theActivecooling policy becomes mandatory.
Dont worry; the display will not turn off if you are watching a video.
Multimedia
These prefs are only used when your gear is sharing media with another unit.
They will not affect the performance of media running on your PC.
If you are not sharing media with any machine, you dont even need to adjust these options.
When playing video
An option very similar to the above.
You decide whether you want to save power while sharing media or have better video quality.
There is also an option to select a balance between both power-saving and video quality.
You should choose the right option based on your priority.
Next, find out how tooptimize Windowsfor a better experience.
