After the evolution of laptops, the preferred work machine for students and employees has reduced. Laptops are now more attractive to everyday consumers thanks to new variations, improved processing power, thermal design, and a general weight reduction. Gamers can also enjoy high-performance gaming while moving with a laptop that offers a similar experience to a desktop.
Laptops now have new battery technologies to power the latest processors and other components. Nowadays, most laptops come with Lithium and Nickel batteries with a specified capacity and an estimated lifetime. Many users choose to monitor their battery health to get the most out of their batteries. Here’s how Windows 11 can help you monitor your battery health.
What is Laptop battery health?
Today’s laptops use Nickel and Lithium batteries. These batteries have a specified capacity and a lifetime. The battery’s efficiency and design will gradually decrease as it is charged, discharged, and used over time. Battery health can reduce the life of your battery’s current capacity compared to your original design capacity. The battery percentage determines how much of your actual design battery capacity you have left. For a better estimate of your battery’s health, you can find the current capacity in mAh.
Monitor Laptop battery usage in Windows 11
Windows 11 has many UI improvements which includes the ability to view battery usage in Settings. This setting allows you to quickly identify and remove apps causing battery drain or misbehaving on your computer. The guided steps below will promptly help you see your battery usage in Windows 11.
- Press the Windows + I button and select Power and battery.
- Click on View detailed info at the top.
- Info screen will show the last 24 hours of battery usage recorded on your system. Click on any slots to see the apps that consumed the most battery in the selected time period.
- Below the graph should be a list of all apps that used the battery in those hours. Click on the “3-dot” menu icon to report an app acting strangely.
- Select “Manage background Activity.”
- Click on the drop-down menu under Background apps permissions and select Never.
- Click on Terminate.
- If you need its background services, then restart the app.
- You can now see a detailed graph of the selected app by following these steps of your past 24 hours of battery usage.
Check Laptop Battery Health in Windows 11
There are many options to check your battery health. For example – The PowerShell method, which generates a detailed report on your battery’s health, is recommended. Suppose you don’t have the technical skills to use PowerShell and want a user-friendly GUI that provides easy-to-understand data. According to your choice, you can try any one of the methods.
Check Battery Health using PowerShell
- Right-click on the Start menu button and then click on Windows PowerShell (Admin).
- Type the following command and press Enter.
- powercfg /batteryreport
- After the command is completed, navigate to C: > Users > User. Double-click on the battery report to open the file.
- You can see detailed battery usage and health report by opening your default browser.
- Check the “Installed Batteries” option at the top of your screen.
- Detailed information on your design capacity and current battery capacity. This info should help you get a good idea about your remaining battery capacity and judge its current battery health.
- You can scroll the report below to get exact data on what amount of battery was consumed (in mWh) from your system during what hours.
Check Battery Health using Third-Party Utilities
You can also view your battery health with third-party utilities. These tools allow you to view your current and design capacities, as well as the number of battery cycles. The following tools are recommended.
HWiNFO
Following software can help you:
- Download HWiNFO
HWiNFO, or Hardware Info, is a popular tool that measures every sensor data on your system. It is capable of reading and capturing data generated by your PC’s performance. HWiNFO can be used to provide detailed information on your battery health and numbers about your battery usage.
- Click the link to download HWiNFO and run it using ‘Sensors Only‘ as shown below.
- Scroll down to the bottom until you find the Battery section.
- Check Wear Level. You should receive the battery’s remaining capacity compared to its original design.
- You can also obtain your remaining or current battery capacity besides Remaining Capacity, as shown below.
BatteryCat
- Download BatteryCat
It is another open-source utility you can quickly and easily check your battery health. It’s the easiest way to see the battery status of your Windows 11 laptop. Although it has been more than two years since the app was last updated, everything still works on Windows 11. The guide below will help you install BatteryCat on Windows 11.
- Click on files to download as shown below.
- Click on Windows portable.
- Now, click and download the top file in the list.
- Extract the archive to a location convenient after it has been downloaded to your local storage.
- Double-click on the file ‘.exe to open BatteryCat. A window should now appear with detailed information about your battery.
