This new Windows 11 setting could improve performance and battery life

By Judy Sanhz Published July 12, 2024

The new power setting in the recent build for Windows 11. — @phantomofearth / X

Yesterday, Microsoft released the Windows 11 26252 build, which brings a flood of innovations that will give users a much-needed power boost. One of those changes is a new power setting that will provide the user more control when their PC is on battery power or not, as Phantom Ocean 3 mentions in a post on X (formerly Twitter), which was noticed by Windows Latest.

In theory, this greater degree of control will allow your system to automate power settings so that you don’t forget to manually switch them while plugged in or on battery.

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The new option will launch with the 24H2 update, but unconfirmed rumors suggest an October release. For now, users will need to wait and see what happens. But with the hidden power option, users can set their preferred power setting by clicking on Settings > System > Power & battery > Power mode drop-down menu.

The two new options that will appear are On battery and Plugged in. However, if you’re running on the Windows 23H3 build, you won’t see the latest options yet. Windows 11 preserves power mode for each profile, but the display is unclear for the time being.

The update also brings changes such as pinning apps to the taskbar and desktop directly from the Start Menu, turning off HDR to save power, an improved Weather app, and more options. Windows 11 Insiders will also see an expiry date data option in the About section of the Settings app. The Canary build also adds fixes to issues in:

Voice Typing
Windows Setup (OOBE) displayed pinyin twice in the input methods list
No text information on the Windows Update page
Power & Battery displayed double text when warning of slow charging
Resized icons in the Startup section to available space

Nevertheless, the update does not fix the issue preventing Dev and Canary users from downloading the latest build. The only known workaround for installing the latest build is manually using the official ISO file.

The Windows 11 24H2 update will also axe three iconic apps, such as the legendary WordPad app. However, until the update arrives, anything can still change, and we’ll have to wait for what the update finally brings.

Computing Writer

Judy Sanhz is a Digital Trends computing writer covering all computing news. Loves all operating systems and devices.

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