These days, as netbooks and laptops keep shrinking and shrinking, the resources required for the many programs users run keep growing and growing.
We expect our programs to run as well as they can on a desktop, yet still maintain the advantage of portability and accessibility anywhere, anytime.
This, of course, has its disadvantages as well, the most Customizing your laptop so that it does less work is key to its laptop performance and increasing the laptop battery life. Here are some ways you can do just that.
Decrease the brightness
This first way is probably the most well-known method. Much of the laptop’s power, like a desktop, is used primarily towards the display/screen. By lowering the brightness, you should undoubtedly experience longer battery life.
In addition to extending the battery life on laptops, this method is also useful for smartphones, and even tablets such as the iPad. ON many phones and devices there is even a way you can set the screen to automatically adjust brightness based on lighting conditions.
Turn of wireless connections
Much like how many smartphone users turn off their 3G or 4G connection while not using it, the same applies to any laptop with wireless (or Wi-Fi) capabilities.
Most newer laptops have a dedicated button to use as a shortcut for turning wireless of (because even the manufacturers know how much this can drain the battery as well).
Turn off the fancy effects
Aero Glass, first introduced in Vista and continues to Windows 7, while pretty is a severe drag on system resources, and the battery. You can turn it off manually, by right clicking on your desktop and going to personalize. After that, change your theme and style to something less flashy.
Of course, there are additional methods or steps you can utilize in your battery-extending efforts.to take this a bit further. There are some third party programs that help with this kind of systems modding and tweaking specifically aimed at increasing laptop battery life.
One such program is BatteryCare. This light-weight tool helps you keep track of the intricacies of your battery. It can even read your laptop’s model, manufacturer, discharge cycles, and temperature readings to tweak settings specifically for your laptop for the best possible extension of your battery life. This software is available free of charge, and it’s website features guides on proper use of the software and proper laptop battery use.
If your system still needs more battery time, may try going a step further by turning your sound off. It seems extreme but any tidbit helps.
And finally, a more mainstream, simplified solution is to change the power settings on your Windows laptop.
- Click Start. Select Control Panel from the right column.
- Click Hardware & Sound
- Under the Power Options header, select Change battery settings
Here you can select a power plan to adjust your laptop battery settings to those that match your needs.Power plans available include Balanced and Power Saver.
These tips should help any laptop user extend battery life. If you have any other tips or resources not provided here, feel free to share them in the comments below.
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