How to manage custom power plans on Windows 10

On Windows 10, a power plan is nothing more than a set of system and hardware settings to manage how your device consumes and conserves power. By default, you can pick from three predefined plans (or schemes), including Balanced, Power saver, and High performance.

Although you can modify each plan with your preferences, you can also create custom power plans with specific settings that are optimized for your particular computer configuration.

In this Windows 10 guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to create, customize, and delete a custom power plan on your computer.

How to create a power plan

In order to create a new custom power plan, you can use the following steps on Windows 10:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Power & sleep.

Click the Additional power settings link.

On the left pane, click the Create a power plan button.

Click the Next button.

Click the Create button.

Once you’ve completed the steps, your new custom plan will be applied to your device.

How to customize a power plan

Although during the creation process you’ll be able to select a set of predefined settings and change when the display should turn off and when your device should go to sleep, there are a number of additional settings you can customize in your newly created plan.

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Power & sleep.
4. Click the Additional power settings link.

Click the Change plan settings link next to your custom power plan.

Click the Change advanced power settings link.

In the «Advanced settings» tab, you’ll find a list of settings you can configure in your scheme.

If you’re looking to create a power plan to optimize battery life, you should consider changing the settings that can impact battery, including the brightness, dimming, and timeout under the Display settings.

In the case your laptop is using a traditional hard drive. You may want to specify when to turn off the drive to conserve battery using the Hard disk settings.

Usually, when you’re not actively using your device, it’ll automatically go into a low-power sleep or hibernation state. Depending on how you use your computer, to reduce power usage, you can set exactly when your computer should go to sleep or hibernate using the Sleep settings.

Wi-Fi adapters can use a significant amount of battery, as such it’s also a good idea to check the Wireless Adapter Settings to make sure «Power Saving Mode» is set at least to Medium Power Saving.

It’s worth noting that not every computer has the same available settings, it’ll depend on your hardware configuration and device category. For example, on laptops, you can change the advanced settings when your device is running on battery or plugged in, but on desktop PCs, you can only configure settings when your device is connected to AC power (for obvious reasons).

Quick Tip: If you want to start over, you can always reset the settings by clicking the Restore plan defaults button in the «Advanced settings» tab for Power Options.

How to delete a power plan

In the case you no longer need a custom power plan, you can quickly delete it using the following steps:

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on System.
3. Click on Power & sleep.
4. Click the Additional power settings link.

Click the Change plan settings link for the power plan you want to delete.

Quick Tip: If you’re trying to delete a power plan you’re currently using, make sure to switch to another scheme before trying to remove it. Otherwise, the delete option won’t be available.

Click the Delete this plan link.

Click OK to confirm.

After completing the steps, the custom power plan will no longer be available on your device.

Wrapping things up

Alongside «power plan,» you’ll also hear about «power mode,» but even though both features are related, you shouldn’t confuse them. Power mode is a feature on Windows 10 to optimize battery life on laptops and tablets, while power plan is available on desktops, laptops, and tablets, and it’s a feature that you can customize any way you want to let Windows know exactly how it should manage power on your PC.

More Windows 10 resources

For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:

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Set the Default Power Plan

Use these instructions to set a default power plan when deploying Windows 8 or Windows Server® 2012 PCs. A power plan is also known as a power scheme.

NoteВ В This page gives information about manufacturing PCs.

To modify a power plans on your own PC, see Power Plans: Frequently asked questions.

To set the default power plan

On your technician computer, open an elevated command prompt.

If you want to use a power plan from another computer, import the power plan.

For example, to import a power plan that is named OutdoorPlan, type the following at a command prompt:

Type the following to find the GUID for all the power plans on the computer:

The computer returns the list of available power plans. The following examples refer to these plans as guidPlan1 and guidPlan2.

Note the GUIDs that are listed next to the power plans that you want to change.

Set the power plan that you want to set as the default as the active power plan. For example, you can use the following command:

where guidPlan2 is the name of the power plan.

This command can be run by using a custom command in an answer file, or by opening an elevated command prompt in audit mode.

To confirm that the default power plan

Click Start, and then select Control Panel.

Click Hardware and Sound, and then select Power Options.

The Power Options Control Panel opens, and the power plans appear.

Review each power plan.

Verify that the correct plan is set as the active power plan. The computer shows an asterisk (*) next to the active power plan.

Microsoft Planner for admins

In this article:

How do I turn off Planner for my organization?

When Microsoft Planner is included in your subscription, it’s automatically turned on for everyone in your organization. If you want to control which people in your organization have licenses for Planner, for example, if your organization isn’t ready to begin using Planner, you can remove or assign Planner licenses by using Office 365 PowerShell.

To control which users have Planner licenses, follow the instructions in How to use Office 365 PowerShell to manage Microsoft Planner licenses. When running the scripts in Office 365 PowerShell, the DisabledPlans value for Microsoft Planner is PROJECTWORKMANAGEMENT.

Removing a user’s Planner license only prevents them from navigating to Planner using the Planner tile. Users in your organization without licenses to Planner can still create and modify plans at the direct Planner URL: tasks. office. com. You can remove users’ ability to create plans at tasks.office.com (see How do I manage who can create a plan?), but you can’t remove their ability to see and modify existing plans at tasks. office. com at this time.

How do I manage who can create a plan?

Every time a person in your organization creates a plan in Planner, the plan’s list of members automatically form a Microsoft 365 group. So to control who creates a plan, you need to control who can create Microsoft 365 Groups.

Admins can control who can create a Group by using Azure Active Directory (AD) PowerShell. Follow the instructions in Control who can create Microsoft 365 Groups to:

1. Disable Group creation for all users in your organization.
2. Allow specific users to create groups (for example, all Planner users) while group creation is disabled.

• Disabling group creation for your organization will affect users of other Microsoft services that need group creation, such as Exchange Online. Make sure to account for all people in your organization that need the ability to create groups when you configure this setting.
• Controlling who can create Microsoft 365 Groups only prevents users from creating new plans. They will still be able to see and modify existing plans at tasks. office. com.

How do I change the domain that Planner email notifications come from?

If you are interested in having your notification emails come from a custom email domain, follow the steps described in Multi-domain support for Microsoft 365 Groups — Admin help.

Can people outside of my organization get invited to participate in a plan?

Yes. Guest access allows you to invite people who aren’t part of your Microsoft 365 organization to participate in a plan. Guest users will have limited functionality, but can perform the following tasks:

• Create and delete tasks and buckets
• Edit task fields
• Attach a file or link to a task, if given additional permission
• Edit the plan name

Can people in my organization use Planner if they don’t have an Exchange Online mailbox?

• If you are using Microsoft Planner in a hybrid environment in which your users may have Exchange Online or on-premises mailboxes, note that:
• Planner has full functionality when your user has a product license that includes Exchange Online Planner users without Exchange Online may have the following issues:
  • Users may have issues with viewing or adding comments to a task.
  • Users may have issues viewing their favorite plans in Planner.

For more information, see KB article 3169632.

How do I make sure all my users can get emails for Planner?

In Planner, users can choose to receive emails when tasks are assigned to them or when tasks are due soon or late (see Choose whether to have email sent directly to you). However, email will only be sent to users who have a product license that includes Exchange Online. Users at organizations using on-premises Exchange Server or hybrid configurations may not receive all Planner emails.

How do I turn off Outlook calendar sync in Planner for my organization?

Outlook calendar sync in Microsoft Planner allows users to view their Planner schedule in Outlook. This feature is turned on automatically in Planner. If you want to turn this off for your organization, follow the steps in Turn off Outlook calendar sync in Planner for your organization.

How do I install or activate Planner for my organization?

Planner comes with these subscriptions:

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard
• Office 365 E1
• Office 365 E3
• Office 365 E5
• Microsoft 365 A1

For more on these subscriptions, see business plans, enterprise plans, or education plans. If your current subscription doesn’t include Planner, the only way to get Planner is to switch to a subscription that does.

Can I see who is already using Planner, or see a list of all the Planner sites?

You can see a list of all groups in the Microsoft 365 admin center, in the Groups section, and find out more detailed information about these groups using Microsoft 365 Reports in the admin center — Microsoft 365 Groups. Every group comes with a plan, but a list of plans and active usage of plans are not included in these reports right now.

How can I apply CA policies to the Planner iOS and Android apps?

To apply CA policies to the Planner iOS and Android apps, please make sure that CA policies are enabled for Exchange or SharePoint within Microsoft Intune in the Azure portal. Enabling CA policy for Planner alone (without policies enabled for Exchange or SharePoint) does not apply the policies for the Planner iOS and Android apps.