Are you running out of battery more often than average? Then this post will help to check which app is draining your battery in Windows. It can be an app running in the background or the foreground, but once you identify it, you can remove or find an alternative to the app.
Why Do Laptop Users Complain About Battery Life?
The most common complaint among laptop users is battery life. The majority of laptops are notorious for having poor battery life. However, if your laptop’s battery is rapidly draining, it isn’t always the manufacturer’s fault. Most of the time, the issue is caused by the apps running on the laptop.
When using a laptop without a power source, it is critical to optimize its performance, and knowing which apps use the most battery is essential. It ensures a prolonged battery life on a single charge, allowing you to keep working without worrying about the battery percentage.
It is vital to check on apps that are consuming your laptop’s battery the most. For this, Windows 10 and Windows 11 offer a dedicated battery use screen that clearly shows which apps are draining the most battery. Let us discuss more ways by which we can check apps draining the battery out of your laptop.
How To Check Which App Is Draining Your Battery In Windows
There are numerous ways in your Windows laptop to check which apps are draining your battery and decide whether to keep them running or stop them. We’ll be discussing each way in brief.
- Task Manager
- Battery Settings
- Analyzing Power Usage
You do not need admin permission for any of these methods.
1. Using The Task Manager
The Windows Task Manager received a significant overhaul in the 2018 Windows 10 update. It added two more columns precisely power usage information of the running apps, including the background processes happening in the system. Here’s a simple step by step method on how you can open this utility and receive desired information from it:
- Press the Ctrl + Shift + Esc buttons on your keyboard simultaneously. It is a keyboard shortcut to open the Task Manager.
- Another way to open the Task Manager is to right-click on the Start button or right-click on the taskbar and open the TaskBar from there.
After opening the Task Manager, click on the Processes tab present at the very top. It’ll be the first option there. In the Processes tab, you’ll see all your system’s stats, including CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, and GPU consumption for each app.
All these sections show the accurate amount of consumption by apps on those specific laptop components. Now, to the right side in the Processes tab, you’ll see two newly added columns named Power usage and Power usage trend. These columns show you the apps that are draining your laptop’s battery. It’ll show whether an app is drawing power from your battery highly or on the lower side.
2. Using The Battery Settings
This feature is slightly new to Windows 11, so it isn’t visible in the old Control Panel. You can find this in the new Settings app.
- To open the Settings app, press Win + I
- After reaching the settings app, go to the System option in the left pane and select Power And Battery from the list of options.
- In the Power and battery options, you’ll see the battery levels in the top right corner. On the right side of the battery levels chart, you’ll see a View Detailed Info option. Click on it.
- Now, scroll down a bit to see the amount of battery used by each app.
3. By Analyzing Power Usage
You can also check the battery usage from the past few days to understand which apps are more accustomed to drawing more power from the battery. By default, the Battery use screen shows the details of the last 24 hours, but it can be increased to 48 hours to almost a week. Just use the dropdown box to change the duration to your liking.
There’ll be more options called In use and Background to show you the exact amount of power consumption by the applications while using them, compared to running in the background. You can change the background app settings if you notice an application drawing high power from the battery.
Further down below, there’ll be a long list of applications in descending order showing the percentage of battery used by them.
Tips To Increase Battery Life
If you’re worried about the constant decline in your battery performance over time, then you need to try out these tips to improve your laptop’s battery life significantly. Several power-hungry applications hinder the ability of your battery to hold a charge for long. Here are some tips you can follow to get the best out of your battery:
1. Using The Battery Saver
Numerous applications run in the background on your laptop without you knowing or using them. They secretly keep draining your battery, making your battery’s single charge capacity much less than how it should be. Here’s how you can stop apps from refreshing in the background:
- Open the Settings app and go to System.
- Click on the option, Power & Battery.
- To perform this step, make sure that you’re not connected to a power source. Now under the Battery Saver section, click the Turn on now button.
Enabling this will lead to the stoppage of certain popup notifications and background activities to prolong your laptop’s battery life.
2. Lowering the Refresh Rate Of the Display
Most high-end laptops, especially gaming laptops, come with a higher refresh rate for a smoother experience. However, this comes at the cost of higher battery consumption. Gaming laptops are most infamously known for their poor battery performance. Hence, it is recommended to lower the screen refresh rate while unplugging from a power source. Here’s how you can do that:
- Open the Settings app, and go to System.
- There, go into Display Settings and then to Advanced display settings.
- Now you can choose your preferred refresh rate for your display. Lower the refresh rate, better the battery performance.
You can pump up your refresh rate after plugging into a power source to experience a smoother experience while gaming or surfing. Lowering the resolution will not help, so make sure not to do it.
Should I Always Use My Laptop Plugged In?
It depends on your usage. However, there are many benefits to using a laptop plugged into the charging. It can enhance the performance and prevent your laptop’s battery from going into discharge and recharge cycles, improving battery life.
Is It Safe To Do Gaming On My Laptop In Battery Saver Mode?
No, it would be best if you did not do gaming in battery saver mode on your laptop as with the battery saver mode, the fans and resources of the laptop are limited, and playing games in such a condition will put a strain on the components and cause them to overheat.
In this article, we’ve discussed how you can check which apps are draining your laptop’s battery life and how you can extend it simultaneously. Keep checking your background processes as they’re the most prominent cause of battery drain. Also, screen brightness and refresh rate are significant reasons for faster battery drain. Using your laptop on mediocre brightness and a lower refresh rate while it is unplugged is always recommended. We hope that this article was helpful to you.
