Our computers are getting smarter and smarter, which is good because our expectations are going up too. But did you know that your Windows 11 computer can react if you look away from your screen? And it might be useful…
If your laptop computer didn’t have a screen but was just circuit boards and a keyboard, that battery would last for days on end, rather than a few hours. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be very useful for most tasks, so our laptops, big or small, tend to have bright, crisp, beautiful, energy sucking screens. The screen is almost always the greatest consumer of power on computers, so it’s no wonder it has such a major impact on battery life.
Microsoft‘s on top of this problem, and as the dev team implemented facial recognition with Windows Hello, they must have had an a-ha moment: What if the computer worked differently when you weren’t sitting in front, using it? Turn your head away, and the screen can dim. Walk away and it might sleep the display. Useful? Well, it’s actually baked into the latest versions of Windows 11!
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SETTINGS
Make sure you’ve updated to the latest version of Windows 11 on your computer and that it’s one that has a camera and Windows Hello already enabled. Go into Settings and search for “battery”:
A number of interesting options, and I appreciate that the search results are getting more chatty and informative, not just categories or subcategories. For this task, tap or click on “Power, sleep, and battery settings“.
You can see that my Acer computer is plugged in (the tiny lightning bolt on the top left of the battery icon) and that it’s at 64% charge. More to the point, I am only meeting 3 of the 10 energy recommendations for maximizing battery life. We’ll come back to that…
Click on “Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts” to open it up and see the various settings:
Here’s where there’s a tension between maximizing battery life and making your PC almost unusable: Windows wants to make these times as short as possible, but we users want it to be as long as possible. You can see that I have it set to turn off my screen after ten minutes and have the device go to sleep after twenty minutes if plugged in. On battery, I cut each in half to try and stretch out the battery just a bit longer.
SMART BATTERY SETTINGS. TOO SMART?
Scroll down, and some new and darn interesting options appear:
To think about with these settings is whether you dutifully sit and look at your display non-stop when you’re working, or whether you might look away, and even walk away at times. If you do look away, does the screen need to stay bright and vivid? If you head to the bathroom or for a more general break, does your display need to stay on while you’re gone?
In the spirit of experimentation, I encourage you to try enabling every feature!
ENERGY SAVER FEATURES
Back on the main Power & Battery screen there’s an “Energy Saver” option. Click on it to see what options it offers:
I am not a fan of having “Always use energy saver” as an option, but you can try it. If you’re running low on battery, however, it can be quite helpful to have it turn on; mine’s set to engage at 30% battery (or lower). If nothing else, the screen will dim a bit, which definitely helps eke out a bit more time from the battery charge.
DIAL IT ALL IN WITH ENERGY RECOMMENDATIONS
If you really want to maximize your battery life, however, the energy recommendations are pretty aggressive! Each has an informative explanation:
Dark Mode is quite helpful regardless of its energy saving features; it reduces blue light and helps your screen look a bit warmer (colorwise) at night. There are more options too:
Now, how many of these ten recommendations do you have enabled on your Windows computer?
Pro Tip: I’ve been using and writing about Microsoft’s online universe for many years. Please check out my Windows 11 help area while you’re visiting! Thanks.