How to Change Windows 10 Power Settings (3 Methods)

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Introduction

This guide demos how to change Windows 10 power settings.

Options to Change Windows 10 Power Settings

The 3 methods to change Windows 10 power settings discussed in this guide are:

1. Power & sleep in Windows Settings
2. Control Panel
3. Command Prompt

Change Windows 10 Power Settings from Power & sleep Settings

To change Windows 10 power settings from Power & sleep settings:

• Right-click start menu. Then click System.

• When System Settings opens, click Power & sleep.

• You can configure power settings here: The Screen section determines when the screen (display) is turned off while Sleep determines when the laptop is “put to sleep” (hard disk is turned off).

Change Windows 10 Power Settings from Control Panel

You can also modify Power Settings in Windows 10 from Control Panel.

Here are the steps:

• Type Control Panel in the search bar. Then click it from the search results.

• At Control Panel, click System and Security.

• When System and Security opens, click Power Options.

• Then beside the active power plan, click Change plan settings.

• Finally, modify how your laptop turns off display and put your laptop to sleep when on battery or plugged in to power. When you finish, click Save changes.

Change Windows 10 Power Settings with Command Line

You can also modify the power settings for a laptop with Powercfg command.

Here are the steps:

• Type cmd in search bar. Then click Run as administrator.

• To list all available power schemes in the PC, type the command below. Then click enter.

The Power scheme marked with asterisks (*) is the active power scheme.

• To modify the behavior of the Power scheme on battery and when plugged in, use the /change switch as shown below…

specifies the power scheme setting you want to change
is the time out value in minutes.

The table below specifies valid values of and the settings each modifies.

S/N	Power Sheme Setting	Description
1	monitor-timeout-ac	Configures monitor timeout value for when the laptop is plugged to power.
2	monitor-timeout-dc	The time set by this will determine length of inactivity to turn monitor off if laptop is on battery.
3	disk-timeout-ac	This setting determine inactivity timeout settings for hard disk to be turned off if the laptop is connected to power
4	disk-timeout-dc	This applies to disk timeout as well but this determines timeout settings for when the laptop is on battery.
5	standby-timeout-ac	To set timeout settings to put the laptop to standby while plugged to power, use this setting
6	disk-timeout-dc	Sets laptop standby timeout for when the laptop is on battery.
7	hibernate-timeout-ac	This determines hibernate timeout while plugged to power
8	hibernate-timeout-dc	Sets hibernate timeout for when the laptop is on battery

• To change display timeout for my laptop to 5 minutes while on battery, type this command. Then press enter.

Here is the command in cmd.

…and the result of the command…Turn off the display has now been set to 5 minutes timeout.

Conclusion

You can modify the power settings of a laptop using one of the methods in this guide. I hope you found the guide useful

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Configure power settings overview

This section contains information about the power settings that you can configure using the Windows provisioning framework. Each power setting topic includes the identification GUID, allowed values, meaning, and common usage scenarios for the setting.

The primary audience for these topics is Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). If you’re a Windows device owner (consumer) and would like to learn more about power settings in Windows 10, please see How to enable Hibernate and Sleep in Power Options on Microsoft’s community support site. You can also search for troubleshooting instructions on this site if needed.

Use Windows Configuration Designer to configure power settings

To configure the power settings, you will first create a provisioning package using Windows Configuration Designer. You will then edit the customizations.xml file contained in the package to include your power settings. Use the XML file as one of the inputs to the Windows Configuration Designer command-line to generate either a provisioning package or a Windows image that contains the power settings. For information on how to use the Windows Configuration Designer CLI, see Use the Windows Configuration Designer command-line interface.

The power settings are not visible in the Windows Configuration Designer UI but appear under the main Common\Power namespace. This namespace is further divided into various groups including:

Policy\Settings which includes the following subgroups:

• AdaptivePowerBehavior
• Processor
• Battery
• Button
• Display
• Disk
• EnergySaver
• PCIExpress
• Sleep
• Misc

Controls which includes the following settings:

The following example shows what your Windows provisioning answer file might look like after you’ve written it.

Use Powercfg.exe to control power schemes

You can use the powercfg.exe tool to control power schemes by providing the GUID or alias for the setting. For more information on how to use this tool, see Powercfg command-line options.

In this section

Adaptive hibernate supports triggers which eliminate resume to a dead battery, and provide a great Modern Standby experience by ensuring that the system remains in CS for as long as possible.

Settings in this subgroup include settings that control the system’s power and behavior.

The Windows 10 processor power management (PPM) algorithms implement OS-level functionality that allows the OS to efficiently use the available processing resources on a platform by balancing the user’s expectations of performance and energy efficiency.

Settings in this subgroup control the customization of battery actions and thresholds.

Settings in this subgroup control the customization of system button actions.

Settings in this subgroup control the power management of the display.

Settings in this subgroup control the power management of disk devices.

Settings in this subgroup control the battery threshold and brightness when Energy Saver is turned on.

Settings in this subgroup control the power management of PCI Express links.

Settings in this subgroup control sleep, resume, and other related functionality.

Settings in this subgroup do not belong to any other subgroup.

How to use powercfg to control power settings on Windows 10

Source: Windows Central

On Windows 10, powercfg is a handy command-line tool that has been around for many years, and it allows you to manage many aspects of power plans (also known as power schemes).

For instance, you can create, edit, and delete power plans. You can enable, customize, or disable some power features, including hibernation and power button. You can use it to troubleshoot energy and battery performance. And you can even use the command-line tool to determine which devices are waking the computer during sleep or hibernation and disable them as necessary, and much more.

In this Windows 10 guide, we will walk you through the steps to use the powercfg command-line tool to manage the power settings on your computer.

How to export or import power plans with powercfg

On Windows 10, you can use Command Prompt to export and import power plans to the same or different computer.

Export power plan

To export a power plan using command-line, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to generate a list of available power plans and press Enter:

Type the following command to export the scheme to the «.pow» file and press Enter:

powercfg /export PATH\TO\FILENAME PLAN-GUID

In the command, specify the path to export the scheme and GUID as shown in the output of step No. 3.

For example, this command exports the «High performance» plan into the «high-performance.pow» file in the «C» drive:

powercfg /export C:\high-performance.pow 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, the plan will be exported into the «.pow» file you specified in the command.

Import power plan

To import a power plan on Windows 10 with Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to import the scheme to the «.pow» file and press Enter:

powercfg /import PATH\TO\FILENAME

In the command, specify the path to the exported file.

For example, this command imports the plan from the «high-performance.pow» file in the «C» drive:

powercfg /import C:\high-performance.pow

Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, the power scheme will be imported to the device.

How to enable or disable hibernation with powercfg

On Windows 10, hibernation is a feature designed to save power by saving the contents loaded in memory onto the hard drive, allowing the computer to shut down without losing your current session. The next time you turn on the device, you can resume where you left off.

If you need to configure hibernation, the powercfg command-tool lets you enable, manage and disable the feature with a few simple commands.

Enable hibernation

To enable hibernation, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to confirm that hibernation is supported on your hardware configuration and press Enter:

If Hibernate shows up in the available states on your computer, then you can enable the feature.

Type the following command to enable hibernation on Windows 10 and press Enter:

powercfg /hibernate on

Source: Windows Central

(Optional) Type the following command to reduce the size of the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys) and press Enter:

powercfg /hibernate /type reduced

The «reduced» type enables «fast startup» without the need for hibernating. This option reduces the hibernation file to about half the usual size. When using this option, the hibernate option in the power menu will no longer be available.

Quick note: If you use a custom size for the size hibernation file, you must first run the powercfg /hibernate /size 0 to avoid errors when running the «reduced» command.

(Optional) Type the following command to change the size of the hibernation file as a percentage (50% or larger) of the memory size and press Enter:

powercfg /hibernate /size 100

In the command, replace 100 with any percentage greater than 50.

Once you complete the steps, hibernation will enable according to your configuration.

Disable hibernation

To disable hibernation on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to enable hibernation on Windows 10 and press Enter:

powercfg /hibernate off

Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, the option to hibernate will no longer be available on Windows 10.

How to create power plan with powercfg

You can also create power plans with custom configurations. However, there is not an option to create a new plan. Instead, you have to duplicate an existing plan and modify it to your requirements.

To create a power plan on Windows 10 with the powercfg tool, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to generate a list of available power plans and press Enter:

Type the following command to create a new power plan and press Enter:

powercfg /duplicatescheme GUID

In the command, replace GUID for power scheme GUID.

For example, this command makes a copy of the High performance plan:

powercfg /duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

Source: Windows Central

Quick tip: In the output, note the GUID for the power plan.

Type the following command to rename the power plan and press Enter:

powercfg /changename GUID «NEW-PLAN-NAME»

In the command, replace GUID with the new power scheme GUID you want to rename and «NEW-PLAN-NAME» with the new plan’s name.

For example, this command assigns the «Super performance» name to the newly created power plan:

powercfg /changename ac093644-6503-4314-b3b6-0b601924e3e9 «My power settings»

(Optional) Type the following command to confirm the new plan was created successfully and press Enter:

(Optional) Type the following command to set the new power plan as system default and press Enter:

powercfg /setactive GUID

In the command, replace GUID with the new power scheme GUID.

For example, this command set the «Super performance» scheme as new default:

powercfg /setactive ac093644-6503-4314-b3b6-0b601924e3e9

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, the power scheme will be created and available on your computer.

How to modify power plan with powercfg

If you need to customize an existing power plan, the powercfg tool includes a few ways to change the available settings.

Change plan settings

To change the Windows 10 power plan settings with commands, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to change the settings of the power plan and press Enter:

powercfg /change OPTION TIME

In the command, replace OPTION with the power setting you want to modify and TIME with a new time in minutes.

For example, this command turns off the display after 15 minutes of inactivity while the computer is plugged in:

powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 15

Source: Windows Central

Options available for the /change option include:

• standby-timeout-ac
• standby-timeout-dc
• disk-timeout-ac
• disk-timeout-dc
• hibernate-timeout-ac
• hibernate-timeout-dc
• monitor-timeout-ac
• monitor-timeout-dc

After you complete the steps, the changes will apply immediately to the currently active power plan.

Change power button settings

In addition to customizing the plan settings, you can also change other power options, such as the power button’s default action.

To change the power button action with powercfg, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to change the default action for the power button when the laptop is plugged in and press Enter:

powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 7648efa3-dd9c-4e3e-b566-50f929386280 0

In the command, the syntax ends with «0,» this is the index value that defines the action, and you must change it to reflect what you want the power button to do.

Source: Windows Central

Here are the available values you can use with their respective action:

• 0 – Do nothing.
• 1 – Sleep.
• 2 – Hibernate.
• 3 – Shut down.
• 4 – Turn off the display.

Type the following command to change the default action for the power button when the laptop is running in battery and press Enter:

powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 7648efa3-dd9c-4e3e-b566-50f929386280 0

Type the following command to apply the changes and press Enter:

powercfg -setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

Once you complete the steps, the next time you press the power button, the action will reflect the configuration you specified in the command.

Delete plan settings

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to list all the available power settings and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Type the following command to delete a specific power setting and press Enter:

powercfg /deletesetting SUB-GUID SETTING-GUID

In the command, replace SUB-GUID with the Subgroup GUID and the SETTING-GUID with the Power Setting GUID you want to delete.

For instance, this commands removes the «Turn off hard disk after» option from the «Super performance» plan:

powercfg /deletesetting 0012ee47-9041-4b5d-9b77-535fba8b1442 6738e2c4-e8a5-4a42-b16a-e040e769756e

Source: Windows Central

After you complete the steps, you need to repeat step No. 4 to remove additional settings.

How to delete power plan with powercfg

To delete a power plan on Windows 10 with the powercfg command tool, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to generate a list of available power plans and press Enter:

Type the following command to create a new power plan and press Enter:

powercfg /delete GUID

In the command, replace GUID for power scheme GUID as shown in the step No. 3.

For example, this command deletes the «My power settings» plan:

powercfg /delete ac093644-6503-4314-b3b6-0b601924e3e9

Source: Windows Central

Quick tip: If the plan you are trying to delete is active, then you won’t be able to remove it until you set another power scheme as the default (see steps below).

Once you complete the steps, the power scheme will no longer be available on Windows 10.

How to change power plan with powercfg

To set another power plan as the new default on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to generate a list of available power plans and press Enter:

Type the following command to change the current power plan and press Enter:

powercfg /setactive GUID

In the command, replace GUID for power scheme GUID as shown in step No. 3.

For example, this command sets the «Balanced» plan:

powercfg /setactive 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

Source: Windows Central

(Optional) Type the following command to confirm the active power scheme and press Enter:

After you complete the steps, Windows 10 will start using the new power plan configuration.

How to report action woke device powercfg

To see what woke the system during the last sleep state on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to understand the reason the system woke during the last sleep transition and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Once you complete the steps, if a device woke up the system, it will be listed in the output.

How to determine wake timers with powercfg

To find out the devices that can wake the system, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to view the active wake timers on Windows 10 and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Type the following command to view app and driver power requests and press Enter:

After you complete the steps, you will better understand the devices, apps, and drivers that can actively wake the system from sleep or hibernation.

How to generate battery report with powercfg

If you have a laptop and notice performance issues with the battery, you can create a report with the power command-line tool to determine information (such as brand, capacity, cycle count, recent usage, battery life estimates, etc.) to help you decide whether or not it is time to replace the battery.

To create a battery report with Command Prompt, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to create a battery report and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Type the following path and press Enter:

Once you complete the steps, you can review the battery report in your default web browser. You can learn more about the battery report on Windows 10 in this guide.

How to generate energy report with powercfg

You can also create an energy report that collects power behavior for a certain amount of time, which you can then analyze to determine the root of energy and battery problems.

To generate a energy report on Windows 10, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to create an energy report and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Quick note: The default command will run for 60 seconds, but you can use the /duration SECONDS option to specify how long the tool will monitor the power behavior to create a report. For example, you can use the powercfg /energy /duration 120 to run the command for two minutes.

Type the following path and press Enter:

After 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.

How to view available sleep states with powercfg

To view the supported sleep states available on your computer, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to determine the supported sleep states of your computer and press Enter:

Source: Windows Central

Here is a list of the all the available sleep states on your device:

Once you complete the steps, you will get a list of the sleep states that are supported and those features that are not supported.

How to enable or disable devices that can wake the system with powercfg

On Windows 10, some devices (such as network adapters) can wake the system from sleep or hibernation to perform a specific task. If you must control this feature, the powercfg command includes options to automatically enable or disable the device’s ability to start the system automatically.

Usually, these options will come in handy to stop the computer from waking up during the night for no apparent reason. Or when you must configure the device to be started remotely using wake-on-LAN (WOL), for example.

Enable device wake feature

To allow a device to wake the system during sleep or hibernation, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to review devices currently not set to wake the computer and press Enter:

powercfg /devicequery wake_programmable

Type the following command to disable its wake functionality and press Enter:

powercfg /deviceenableawake «DEVICE-NAME»

In the command, replace «DEVICE-NAME» with the name of the device you want to enable, as shown in step No. 3.

For example, this command allows the Ethernet adapter to wake up the system:

powercfg /deviceenablewake «Intel(R) 82574L Gigabit Network Connection»

Source: Windows Central

(Optional) Type the following command to confirm the device has been disable and press Enter:

powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

Confirm the device name appears in the list.

After you complete the steps, the device will be able to wake the computer while it is in sleep or hibernation mode.

Disable device wake feature

To prevent a device from waking the system from sleep or hibernation, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to review devices allowed to wake the computer and press Enter:

powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

Type the following command to disable its wake functionality and press Enter:

powercfg /devicedisablewake «DEVICE-NAME»

In the command, replace «DEVICE-NAME» with the name of the device you want to disable, as shown in step No. 3.

For example, this command disable the Ethernet adapter from waking up the computer:

powercfg /devicedisablewake «Intel(R) 82574L Gigabit Network Connection»

Source: Windows Central

(Optional) Type the following command to confirm the device has been disable and press Enter:

powercfg /devicequery wake_armed

Confirm the device name you disabled is no longer showing in the command output.

Once you complete the steps, the device will longer be able to wake the system from any power state mode.

We are focusing this guide on the most useful options, but the command-line tool includes some additional features, which you can list using the powercfg /? command.

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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