Did you know that Windows 7 includes a hidden diagnostic utility that you can use to generate a power efficiency report for your computer? No, well I’m not surprised. Its not exactly a widely publicised feature.
When you run the program, it monitors your computer for 60 seconds to identify areas where power is being wasted. After it finishes, a report is generated that will show any found errors, warnings or other information related to your computer’s power efficiency.
So how do you run a power efficiency report? First of all, close down any other programs. For best results, you really want to start this utility whilst nothing else is running on your computer.
- Click Start and type cmd.
- Hover your mouse over the cmd entry and right click.
- Select ‘run as administrator’ from the menu
- Type powercfg /energy and press Enter.
After it finishes, the power efficiency report will be saved to c:windowssystem32. The report will look something like the one below. It will contain information about which applications, processes or drivers are having an impact on power management.
Give it a try. You never know, you might be able to improve your laptops battery performance without the minimum of effort.