Choosing a Power Management Plan

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 4, 2019)

It's obvious that your computer uses power; it has to in order to operate properly. You can, however, minimize the amount of power your computer uses by changing Windows' power settings. You can access those settings in this manner:

  1. Display the Control Panel.
  2. At the left side of the screen click the Hardware and Sound heading. Windows displays the Hardware and Sound screen.
  3. Under the category of Power Options, click the Change Power-Saving Settings option. Windows displays the Power Options screen. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Power Options screen.

  4. Pick one of the power management plans available on the screen.

Most modern computers allow Windows to control both the computer itself (including the hard drive) and the display monitor. These components can be set to automatically "turn off" after varying amounts of inactivity. Windows offers three power management plans that you can select in step 4:

  • Balanced. This is typically the plan recommended for desktop systems. It turns off the display monitor after 10 minutes and puts the computer to sleep after 30.
  • Power Saver. This plan works great for laptop and mobile systems. It turns the display off after 5 minutes and puts the computer to sleep after 15.
  • High Performance. This plan is designed for systems that may require a lot of unattended computational time, where you don't really want the computer to pause what it is working on. It turns off the display monitor after 20 minutes and never puts the computer to sleep.

 This tip (10716) applies to Windows 7 and 10.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using Your Own File Extensions

Word uses the DOC file extension for regular documents. If you want to use a different file extension, you can easily do ...

Discover More

Printing an Entire Workbook by Default

Need to print an entire workbook? It's as easy as adding a single line of code to your macros.

Discover More

Using Outline Numbering in a Table

Can you put a numbered outline in a table? Yes, you can. But Word is rather prickly when it comes to using the keyboard ...

Discover More
More WindowsTips

Adjusting the Cursor Blink Rate

In Windows, the cursor indicates where you are about to type information using the keyboard. You can adjust how quickly ...

Discover More

Wiping a Drive

Want to easily improve the security of your old data? Here's an addition to the venerable format command that can help.

Discover More

Changing the MAC Address for a Network Adapter

MAC addresses are used to uniquely identify devices on your network, such as a network adapter. Here's how you can modify ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is four less than 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

Newest Tips
Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.