Windows 10 Battery Drain: Find Power-Hungry Apps
Understanding Battery Consumption in Windows 10
Windows 10 incorporates a dedicated "Battery Use" feature designed to provide insights into your laptop’s power usage. This functionality identifies applications that are significantly impacting battery life.
The system will pinpoint both traditional desktop applications and the newer Windows 10 "universal" apps that are consuming excessive power.
Accessing the Battery Use Information
This capability is integrated within the "Battery saver" settings, accessible through the new Settings app in Windows 10.
Interestingly, this feature wasn't originally developed for the desktop environment.
Origins of the Feature
It was initially implemented in Windows Phone and subsequently brought to desktop computers with the release of Windows 10.
Comprehensive Power Usage Breakdown
Beyond applications, the "Battery Use" screen also provides a detailed analysis of power consumption by your display and other hardware components.
This allows for a complete understanding of where your laptop's energy is being utilized.
- The display's power draw is clearly indicated.
- Usage by other internal hardware is also reported.
By monitoring these details, users can identify potential areas for optimization and extend their laptop’s battery life.
Locating the Battery Usage Display
Related: A Guide to Utilizing and Setting Up Windows 10’s “Battery Saver” Feature
Introduced with Windows 10, this functionality isn't accessible through the traditional Control Panel. Instead, it resides within the modern Settings application, initiated by selecting "Settings" from the Start menu.
Within the Settings app, navigate to "System" and subsequently choose "Battery saver." Alternatively, a direct route is available by typing "Battery saver" into the Cortana search field and selecting the corresponding option.
The right-hand side of the screen presents a summary, indicating your current battery level and the projected remaining usage time as calculated by Windows. Selecting the "Battery use" link, found beneath this summary, will reveal a more detailed breakdown.
Understanding Your Power Consumption
The Battery Use screen, by default, presents data covering the preceding 24-hour period. However, the timeframe can be adjusted to display information from the last 48 hours, or even the past week.
To modify this setting, simply click or tap the dropdown menu located beneath the label "Showing battery use across all apps from the last" at the screen's top. Then, select your preferred duration: "24 Hours," "48 Hours," or "1 Week."
Key Battery Usage Metrics
Beneath this selection box, you’ll observe percentages attributed to "System," "Display," and "Wi-Fi." These figures represent the proportion of battery power consumed by system processes, the screen, and your wireless network connection, respectively.
Often, the display will account for a significant portion of power usage. To mitigate this, consider reducing your screen’s brightness or configuring the display to enter sleep mode more frequently through Settings > System > Power & Sleep.
The options "In use" and "Background" delineate power consumption by applications while actively utilized versus those operating in the background.
Should applications be drawing power in the background, you can access and modify background app settings via the provided link. This functionality applies exclusively to universal Windows 10 applications, restricting their ability to receive notifications, update live tiles, or execute background tasks. This adjustment can contribute to battery conservation, particularly for infrequently used Windows 10 apps.
Application-Specific Battery Drain
Scrolling down reveals a comprehensive list of applications. This section is particularly valuable, as it encompasses both desktop and universal applications.
The list displays each app that has utilized battery power within the selected timeframe, alongside the percentage of total battery power consumed by each.
If an application is absent from this list, it indicates that it was not used during operation on battery power, and therefore did not contribute to battery drain.
Detailed Application Energy Usage
To gain a more granular understanding of a specific application’s energy consumption, click or tap on its entry and then select the "Details" button.
This will reveal the percentage of power used by the app for system processes, the display, and Wi-Fi. Furthermore, it differentiates between power consumption during active use and background operation.
Similar to the overall app overview, you can choose to view details for the last 24 hours, 48 hours, or one week. For instance, the following illustrates Google Chrome’s battery usage on a laptop over the past 48 hours:
The term "Allowed" appearing beneath certain Windows 10 universal apps signifies their permission to run in the background.
Selecting an app and then choosing the "Details" button provides further information. From this view, you can disable the "Allow this app to run in the background" option, thereby preventing the app from consuming power while inactive.
Extending Battery Performance on Laptops and Tablets
Inevitably, all software applications consume battery power, and those used frequently will typically be the primary contributors to battery drain. Resource-intensive applications, such as complex PC games or video encoding software, are particularly demanding on energy reserves.
The Battery usage panel within Windows offers controls to manage background activity for Windows 10 applications, potentially improving battery life if you utilize such programs. However, the Settings interface does not provide equivalent control over traditional Windows desktop applications.
Further Reading: Understanding Smart Charging in Windows 10 and Windows 11
If a desktop application is significantly impacting power consumption while running in the background, closing it when not actively in use can conserve energy. For applications that consume substantial power during active use, options are more limited. Consider exploring alternative, less power-hungry software, or optimizing the application itself—for instance, by removing browser extensions, activating click-to-play plugins, and reducing the number of simultaneously open browser tabs.
Battery life isn't solely determined by applications; numerous other settings also play a role. The display backlight is a major power consumer, so reducing screen brightness can yield substantial improvements. Configuring your PC to enter sleep mode more rapidly can also be beneficial if you don't consistently put it to sleep manually.
While the Battery usage screen isn't a comprehensive solution for minimizing application power consumption, it serves as a valuable—and often the only—means within Windows to identify which applications are the biggest energy users. This data isn't readily available even within the updated Task Manager.
This insight allows users to understand power distribution and make informed choices to maximize battery longevity.
Image Source: DobaKung on Flickr
