How to Choose a Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10


A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your computer uses power. Power plans can help you save energymaximize system performanceor achieve a balance between the two.

All users (standard and administrator) will be able to make changes to any power plan settings.

Changes made to a power plan will affect all users that have chosen the same power plan as their default active power scheme.

Windows 10 includes the following default power plans:

• Balanced - Offers full performance when you need it and saves power when you don't. This is the best power plan for most people.
• Power saver - Saves power by reducing PC performance and screen brightness. If you're using a laptopthis plan can help you get the most from a single battery charge.
• High performance - Maximizes screen brightness and might increase PC performance. This plan uses a lot more energyso your laptop battery won't last as long between charges.
• Ultimate Performance - Only available in the Windows 10 Pro for Workstations edition starting with Windows 10 build 17101. Provides ultimate performance on higher end PCs. It builds on the current High-Performance policyand goes a step further to eliminate micro-latencies associated with fine grained power management techniques. As the power scheme is geared towards reducing micro-latencies it may directly impact hardware; and consume more power than the default balanced plan. The Ultimate Performance power policy is currently not available on battery powered systems.
• Custom power plan - These are only available if either your PC manufacturer (OEM) provided additional power plansand/or you create a custom power plan. These are available to all users.

See also: Quickly switching your Power Plan on Windows 10 | Microsoft

This tutorial will show you how to choose a power plan to be your current active power scheme that will be used by default for your account in Windows 10.

Contents

• Option One: To Choose a Power Plan in Power Options
• Option Two: To Choose a Power Plan in Windows Mobility Center
• Option Three: To Choose a Power Plan in Command Prompt

OPTION ONE

To Choose a Power Plan in Power Options

1 Do step 2step 3or step 4 below for how you would like to open Power Options.

2 Right click or press and hold on the Power icon in the notification areaclick/tap on Power optionsand go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)

3 Open the Control Panel (icons view)click/tap on the Power Options iconand go to step 5 below.

4 Open the Win+X Power User Tasks menuclick/tap on Power Optionsand go to step 5 below.

5 Select (dot) the power plan (ex: High performance) you want to use by default for your account. (see screenshot below)

6 You can now close Power Options if you like.

OPTION TWO

To Choose a Power Plan in Windows Mobility Center

1 Right click or press and hold on the Power icon in the notification areaand click/tap on Windows Mobility Center (mblctr.exe). (see screenshot below)

2 In the Power drop down menuselect the power plan (ex: High performance) you want to use by default for your account. (see screenshot below)

3 You can now close Windows Mobility Center if you like.

OPTION THREE

To Choose a Power Plan in Command Prompt

1 Open a command prompt.

2 Copy and paste the powercfg /List OR powercfg /L command into the command promptand press Enter. This will give you a list of all available power plans on the PC along with their GUID. Make note of the GUID of the power plan you want to choose. (see screenshot below)

The power plan scheme that has an asterisk * to the right of it is your current active power plan scheme.

3 Type either command below into the command promptand press Enter. (see screenshot below)

powercfg /S GUID

OR

powercfg /setactive GUID

Substitute GUID in the command above with the actual GUID from step 2 above for the power plan you want to choose.

For example:

(Balanced)
powercfg /S 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

(High performance)
powercfg /S 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

(Power saver)
powercfg /S a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

(Ultimate Performance)
powercfg /S e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

4 You can now close the command prompt if you like.

That's it,
Shawn Brink

Related Tutorials

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• How to See Your Current Active Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove 'Choose Power Plan' context menu in Windows 10
• How to Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
• How to Create a Custom Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Rename a Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Export and Import a Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Delete a Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Reset and Restore Power Plans to Default Settings in Windows 10
• How to Change Power Mode Level in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Power Options Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Specify a Default Active Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10
• How to Restore Missing Default Power Plans in Windows 10
• How to View All Power Plan Settings in a Text File in Windows

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