How to create energy report on Windows 10
You can create a power efficiency report to understand and resolve energy-related problems with your Windows 10 device, and in this guide, we’ll show you how.
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AlthoughWindows 10does a pretty good job managing the power on a device, sometimes, you may come across power management issues, such as poor battery life or inefficient use of energy, and this is when the ability to create an energy report can come in handy.
The diagnostic report is done using the"powercfg" command-line tool. Once you run the command, it will collect power behaviors to analyze common battery life and energy efficiency problems for a certain amount of time. Then you can review the data to make the appropriate modifications to resolve the issues or determine whether you need to upgrade some components or replace the battery.
In this Windows 10 guide, we will walk you through the steps to create an energy report to diagnose your device’s power efficiency and battery life.
How to create energy report with Command Prompt
To generate an energy report on Windows 10, use these steps:
Once you complete the steps, you can review the report to understand the energy and battery efficiency to investigate and resolve power problems on Windows 10.
When generating an energy report, it is always recommended to use the command when no application is running, and the device is in idle mode for the best results.
How to review energy report on Windows 10
To view the energy report, use these steps:
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After you complete the step, the report will open with the default web browser configured on Windows 10.
The power efficiency report can be very long, but it is not too difficult to understand. The port includes a first part with the scan information, version of Windows 10, and related details.
The second part is where you will find the analysis results, which are grouped in three categories, including error, warnings, and information.
The “Errors” section includes the items that are considered problems with your device. Usually, these are configuration issues rather than hardware problems.
For example, in this test, the report points out the “Power Policy: Sleep timeout is disabled (On Battery)” error, which simply means that the device is not configured to sleep after a period of inactivity while on battery automatically.
If this were a problem on your laptop, to resolve the issue to improve battery life, you would need to change the sleep settings to sleep after a certain period automatically onSettings>System>Power & sleep.
The “Warnings” section reveals features and components that are not using the recommended settings or services responsible for consuming a lot of power during the trace.
For instance, the report points out the “Power Policy: Display timeout is long (On Battery)” warning, which indicates that the display turns off after five minutes when the recommended settings should be less than five.
If this were an issue in your machine, you would fix it by changing the display sleep configuration onSettings>System>Power & sleep.
The “Information” section displays important energy-related information about the system, including power policies currently configured. Battery information like brand, model, and capacity. The supported sleep features, and more.
Perhaps the most significant piece of information is battery design capacity and last full charge. For example, this test shows that the design capacity is 91000 MWh, but after many cycles, the capacity after the last charge is 85230 MWh. This means that the device can still hold around 93 percent of the charge. However, if the percentage was significantly lower and you were having a battery drain problem, this could indicate that the battery needs to be replaced.
If you need additional help, you can also send the report to tech support or a savvy friend to help you diagnose and tweak the power settings to optimize your desktop computer or laptop’s energy efficiency.
Mauro Huculak has been a Windows How-To Expert contributor for WindowsCentral.com for nearly a decade and has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides. He also has an IT background and has achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft, Cisco, VMware, and CompTIA. He has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years.
