Sign in to your How-To Geek account
Quick Links
-
Tweaking the Battery Notifications / Actions
If you’ve got a netbook with really great battery life, you’ll probably still have loads of time left even with only 10% of the battery remaining. Here’s how to tweak the settings so it alerts you or goes into sleep mode at a more reasonable time. Note: obviously if you don’t have a great battery in your laptop, you should probably be careful with these settings or you might lose data. If anything, you’d be better off making the notifications happen sooner in that case.
Tweaking the Battery Notifications / Actions
You’ll want to start by heading into Power Options from the Control Panel, or more easily, by just clicking on the power icon in the tray and going to More Power Options. Once you’re there, you can tweak the current plan by clicking the “Change plan settings” link.
Next you’ll want to click the “Change advanced power settings” link at the bottom of that dialog.
Now find the option for Battery at the bottom of the dialog and expand it until you find the various settings for Critical, Low, or Reserve battery levels.
Here’s how the different levels work:
- Low Battery is the first notification you’ll get, generally at 10% battery life remaining. At this point you’ll get a notification unless you feel like turning it off. You can change the Low Battery Action to go into sleep mode if you want, though that would defeat our purpose here.
- Reserve Battery is when the laptop will start taking drastic measures to stop using extra power, usually at 7%.
- Critical Battery is when your laptop will immediately go into Hibernate mode, usually at 5% remaining. You can change the Critical Battery Action to Sleep instead of Hibernate if you choose.
You can customize any of the levels here, and you can even disable the notification entirely if you want.
On my MacBook Air running Windows 7, I’ve adjusted the Critical Battery Action to Sleep Mode instead, and changed the low battery notification down a bit. That’s mostly because I’ve got great battery life, and I’ll always plug it in quickly once the battery dies.
If you’re a Windows 7 user, you may have noticed that when your laptop battery is running low, the system will automatically take action to preserve power. This can include dimming the screen, putting the laptop into sleep mode, or hibernating the system altogether. While these actions are designed to help you conserve battery life, they may not always be the most convenient or efficient for your specific needs.
Fortunately, Windows 7 allows you to customize the low battery action settings to better suit your preferences. In this article, we will walk you through the steps to tweak the low battery action on your Windows 7 laptop, so you can ensure your device behaves exactly the way you want it to when the battery is running low.
Understanding Low Battery Actions
Before we dive into the customization process, it’s important to understand the different low battery actions available to you in Windows 7. When your laptop battery reaches a certain level of charge, the system will automatically trigger one of the following actions:
-
Do nothing: This option will do exactly that – nothing. Your laptop will continue to operate normally even as the battery level drops below the set threshold. This can be useful if you want to keep working without interruptions, but be aware that it may drain your battery faster.
-
Sleep: Putting your laptop to sleep will conserve power by turning off the display and putting the system into a low-power state. This is a good option if you need to step away from your device for a short period and want to quickly resume your work when you return.
-
Hibernate: Hibernation saves your current work and settings to the hard drive before shutting down the system. This allows you to power off your laptop completely without losing any unsaved data. Hibernation is a great choice if you need to preserve battery life for an extended period without losing your work.
-
Shut down: This option will power off your laptop completely. It is the most drastic action and should be used sparingly, as it will result in the loss of any unsaved work.
Now that you understand the different low battery actions available in Windows 7, let’s explore how to customize these settings to better suit your needs.
Customizing Low Battery Actions
To tweak the low battery action on your Windows 7 laptop, follow these steps:
-
Open the Control Panel: Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your screen, then select Control Panel from the menu.
-
Navigate to Power Options: In the Control Panel, click on the Hardware and Sound category, then select Power Options.
-
Choose a power plan: In the Power Options window, you will see a list of power plans available on your laptop. Select the plan you want to customize by clicking on the corresponding radio button.
-
Change plan settings: Once you have selected a power plan, click on the Change plan settings link next to it.
-
Adjust advanced power settings: In the Edit Plan Settings window, click on the Change advanced power settings link.
-
Customize low battery action: In the Power Options dialog box, scroll down to the Battery category and expand it. Here, you will find the Low battery level and Critical battery level settings, which determine when the low battery action will be triggered. Adjust these levels to your desired thresholds.
-
Customize low battery action: Next, scroll down to the Low battery action and Critical battery action settings. Click on the dropdown menu next to each setting to choose the action you want the system to take when the battery reaches the corresponding level.
-
Apply changes: Once you have customized the low battery actions to your liking, click on the OK button to save your settings.
By following these steps, you can easily tweak the low battery action on your Windows 7 laptop to better suit your preferences. Whether you need to conserve battery life for an extended period or keep working uninterrupted, customizing these settings will help you get the most out of your device.
Tips for Optimizing Battery Life
In addition to customizing the low battery actions on your Windows 7 laptop, there are several other tips you can follow to optimize battery life and get the most out of your device:
-
Adjust screen brightness: Lowering the brightness of your screen can significantly extend battery life. Consider dimming the display when working in dimly lit environments to conserve power.
-
Turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: If you are not using Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, disable these features to prevent them from draining your battery unnecessarily.
-
Close background programs: Running multiple programs in the background can consume battery power. Close any unnecessary applications to conserve energy.
-
Use power-saving mode: Many laptops come with a power-saving mode that automatically adjusts settings to conserve energy. Enable this mode to maximize battery life.
-
Unplug peripherals: Disconnect any external devices such as USB drives or external monitors when not in use to reduce power consumption.
By following these tips and customizing the low battery actions on your Windows 7 laptop, you can ensure that your device operates efficiently and effectively even when the battery is running low. Take the time to customize these settings to suit your specific needs, and enjoy extended battery life and uninterrupted productivity on your laptop.
Every laptop comes with built-in battery alerts, allowing you to know when your battery is running low and needs charging. However, on different operating systems, this mechanism is placed in different locations, and Windows 7 is an example. Mytour will guide you through setting up low battery alerts for your Windows 7 laptop.
If you’re accustomed to the Windows XP interface and switch to the new Windows 7 for the first time, you’ll encounter many unfamiliar features and a vastly different interface from the old operating system. Because you’re new to it, you may not know how to set up battery status notifications for your laptop, which can lead to sudden power outages if the battery runs out.
In the previous article, Mytour showed you how to turn on/off Bluetooth in Windows 7. Today, also in Windows 7, we’ll introduce you to setting up notifications when your laptop is about to run out of battery.
Step 1: Click Start Menu (bottom left corner of the screen) —> type Power Options in the Search Programs and Files section, open Power Options.
Step 2: In the Power Options window, click Change Plan Settings on any item to modify some settings.
Step 3: In the Edit Plan Settings window, click Change advanced power settings to modify default options for laptop battery mode.
Step 4: The Power Options window appears. From the dropdown list, select the Balanced [Active] setting.
Step 5: Search for and select the Battery item. Within this Battery section, there are several options for you to choose and apply to your laptop:
— Low Battery level: Notifies when your laptop battery is weak (default is 10%).
Low Battery ActionReserve Battery levelLow Battery ActionCritical BatteryLow Battery ActionOK
If you feel like your laptop battery is having issues such as rapid depletion, it’s best to set up early notification mode for battery levels to have the computer shut down automatically, avoiding situations where the battery runs out, risking damage to the computer hardware.
Working on your notebook which is having a pretty high battery life? And wonder why you are being notified even when you have pretty much time left to plug into an AC power supply?
Windows takes into account the average laptops with battery lives around 2-4 hours and Microsoft has accordingly set the battery levels after which the users get notified and eventually pushing Windows into Hibernate mode after reaching a critical stage. But if you consider the case of the users with long battery backups, they would still be having more than enough time to save their current work, get plugin the power supply to the laptop. So if you are once such user, you might want to change the low battery actions on your laptop. Before that, let’s see what are the different battery levels considered by your Windows OS.
>> Low battery level is where you will laptop starts showing the first low battery notification and the low battery level usually lies in the range of 10-12%.
>> Reserve battery level is where your Windows starts acting and gets ready for hibernating, in most cases it will be around 7-8% lying closer to the critical battery level.
>> Critical battery level is where your laptop goes into Hibernation mode immediately and it’ll be around 5% in general.
Now that you have got the basic idea about different battery levels, let’s get into to details of changing the low battery notifications in Windows 7.
Steps:
1. Type “power options” in the Start Menu search and open the first result under the Control Panel section.
2. Now select the power plan for which you want to change the low battery notification settings, and click the “Change plan settings” link found next to the power plan.
3. In the “Edit Plan Settings” window, click on the “Change advanced power settings” link found at near the bottom.
4. Scroll down to “Battery” section in the Advanced settings tab and click the “+” button to expand it.
5. You may adjust the settings for each of the battery levels i.e Low battery level, Reserve battery level and Critical battery level.
Click “OK” once you are done to apply the settings. That’s it.
In order to turn the Low Battery Notification On or Off in Windows, we first need to reach the Power Options, and then edit the Low battery notification settings.
- Opening Power Options in Windows
- Turn Low Battery Notification On or Off in Windows
Opening Power Options in Windows
Step 1: Right-click on the Battery icon in the Taskbar, and then click on Power Options. It will open the Power Options window.
Step 2: In the Power Options window, click on the Change plan settings option of the power plan that you are currently using. In this case, the High performance power plan is being used.
Step 3: Next, in the Edit Plan Settings window, click on the Change advanced power settings link. This opens the Power Options.
Step 4: In the Power Options window, go to the Battery option, and expand it.
Turn Low Battery Notification On or Off in Windows
Step 1: Now, navigate to the Low battery notification option, and click on the (+) button next to it to display all of its options.
Step 2: By default, the Low battery notification is set to On; you can change it here to Off. Click on the On text, and then select the Off option from the drop-down menu to disable the Low battery notification for your computer. Similarly, you can change the setting from Off to On.
Step 3: After selecting the preferred option, click on Apply and then OK to complete the process.
