As a general rule, Windows Power Settings It is usually a configuration unknown to most users, especially those with desktop PC that do not depend on battery life such as laptops. However, there are many options here that will allow you to not only customize the performance of your hardware, but also have a file better performance. In this article, we will tell you what power settings can work for you.
Usually, when you have a laptop, you usually set some power settings the way you would like to be done, especially if you rely on its battery for more independence. However, here you will find exciting options for desktop PCs, and we will explain everything below.
Power settings in Windows 10
To access these settings you have several options: first click the start button and then type “Set up power plan”, from which it will take you directly to the options. Second access to the Windows Control Panel, from there click on Power Options, and in this window that will open, access “Change plan settings.” By default you will find at least two pre-configured programs: moderate and high performance.
In the left pane you will see some great options:
- Select the function of the on / off buttons: Here you can set what you want the computer to do when you press the power button on your PC. You can choose Sleep, Lock, Lock screen or do nothing. If your computer has a pause button, you can also edit the same options.
- Select when screen is off: this section is self-explanatory, because you can choose how long the inactive time should pass so that the screen turns off automatically. It also allows you to choose how long it should take to do nothing before the computer goes to sleep.
- Change how often the computer sleeps: this option takes you exactly as in the previous section.
Set up the power system
Let’s see what options we have when we click on the button «Change settings» -> «Change advanced power settings».
A new window will open where you will find a large number of settings, and we will see and define each of them.
- HDD: here we can adjust how long it should take before the system puts the hard disk or storage in sleep mode. For this to work with SSD it must support Devsleep function.
- Internet Explorer: We can assume that this setting affects not only the browser, but Windows also considers the normal file browser as such. Here we can configure the “JavaScript time frequency” parameter, which is automatically built as a high performance and therefore we recommend leaving it.
- To set up the desktop background: here you will only find the Presentation menu below, which is automatically set as available. This allows you to set up a folder with photos around it as your desktop background.
- Wireless adapter suspension: in case your computer has a wireless adapter, this option allows you to configure its power saving mode. By default it is set as high performance and you have to leave it that way in order to work best with WiFi.
- Lay off: in this menu we find two options:
- Pause in the background– Allows you to configure how long it should take to do nothing before the computer goes into sleep mode.
- Allow time calculators: performing this setting allows that when certain programs need to perform a task, they can remove the computer from sleep mode.
- USB setup: here we can adjust whether we want to enable the selected USB configuration or not. When the system detects that a USB-connected device has been idle for a while, you can disable it. We recommend disabling this option to avoid problems with other USB devices.
- Close / close buttons and covers: here we find two submenus which is exactly what we saw earlier under the menu «Select the behavior of the start / stop buttons».
- PCI Express– The option here is called “Link State Power Management”, and it works like a USB Selective Suspend – Allow Idle PCI-Express devices to shut down. Also, we recommend disabling this option to make it work better and to avoid issues.
- Processor power management: in this section we find three submenus:
- Low processor status– This option determines the operating system (or P state) that Windows will use for the processor. This will vary the processor clock speed and, if supported, its speed power and FSB speed. We recommend leaving this parameter 100%.
- System Cooling Guide: Active cooling is set to default, which means fans are active. If you set it up as idle, fans will turn it off unless you download a fan management system, which will rule on this fix.
- High processor condition– Similar to the low status option, sets the advanced processing level. If you have problems with overheating, you can reduce this number so that the processor does not overheat.
- screen: here we can adjust the duration of inactivity until the screen turns off automatically, we go into sleep mode (only the screen, not the PC).
- Multimedia settings: In this last power system we find three options:
- There you share multimedia: we can configure (activate / disable) that the computer may leave sleep mode if another computer accesses the network share of this.
- Compensation for video playback quality: here we can prepare that, when we play a video, we want its quality or energy saving. It is recommended to choose compensation to work better, of course.
- When playing a video: While it may appear that this menu will allow us to adjust whether we want to allow the machines to go into sleep mode or not when playing video, this happens automatically and we can also stop the video playing profile between using quality, improving savings or a balanced system.
