How to Get Your Windows 11 Battery Report

This article explains how to use Windows 11 battery report. The Windows 11 battery report is an HTML document that users can generate with a single command.

How to Get a Windows 11 Battery Report From the Command Prompt

The method to get a Windows 11 battery report hasn't changed from the Windows 10 battery report. You can use the Command Prompt, PowerShell, or third-party utilities. The Command Prompt is the simplest and quickest way.

1. Open the Command Prompt. In the taskbar, search for Command Prompt, or right-click Start (the Window icons) and select Terminal.
   

2. In the Command Prompt window, type powercfg /batteryreport
   

3. The battery report automatically generates and saves as an HTML file in a user folder on the C Drive. Browse to the default path from File Explorer: C:\Users[YOUR USERNAME]\battery-report.html
   

4. Select the file and open it in the default browser.
   

5. Scroll through the report. Go to the Installed batteries section and examine Design Capacity and Full Charge Capacity.
   

6. The breakdown of information is the same as Windows 10 battery report. Compare Design Capacity to Full Charge Capacity and see how much the battery can hold now. A lower Full Charge Capacity indicates a drop in battery health.
   

7. Read the Cycle Count. The number shows the charging and recharging cycles the laptop battery has gone through. A high cycle count will decrease the battery's health more rapidly over time.
   

Does Windows 11 Consume More Battery?

No. Your Windows 11 laptop should be more battery-efficient than a Windows 10 laptop.

Microsoft designed Windows 11 to draw less power from the battery. Performance optimizations include sleeping tabs on Microsoft Edge which should use 37% less CPU on average than an active tab. Windows also prioritizes the active app in the foreground, giving it a greater share of the memory and CPU resources. Under the hood, apps and the OS itself exert a lighter load on the disk.

Windows 11 has specific hardware requirements that require more power-efficient Intel (8th-gen or later) and AMD (Ryzen 2000 series or later) chips.

Steve Dispensa, VP of Enterprise Management at Microsoft, explains all the enhancements in the Microsoft Mechanics blog post and a video.

How Do I Stop Windows 11 From Draining My Battery?

The methods to make your laptop's battery last longer haven't changed in Windows 11. The key to stopping Windows 11 from draining your battery lies in optimizing your laptop's performance and your habits.

Use the Battery saver setting to get more out of your rapidly depleting battery. Windows 11 will automatically turn off background syncing of emails and live tiles when the charge falls to a certain level. It will also turn off any app you are not using.

1. Select Start > Settings > System > Power & battery.
   

2. Go to Battery saver. Select a percentage for the battery level when the Battery saver should turn on from the dropdown.
   

3. Select Turn on now to enable the setting manually now till the next time you plug in your PC to a power outlet.
   

Which Apps Are Draining My Battery in Windows 11?

The Power & battery Settings screen is where you'll find the worst battery draining apps on your Windows PC. 

1. Select Start > Settings > System > Power & battery.
   

2. Select Battery usage. Use the graph to see the battery usage patterns across the last 24 hours or the last 7 days and the screen off and screen on time.
   

3. Check the Battery usage per app. This list can tell you which app consumes the most battery while in the background or when it's active. Sort the list by Overall usage, In use, Background, or just alphabetically by name.
   

How to Manage the Background Activity of Apps

You can use this list to pinpoint the resource-hugging apps and terminate them completely so they don't run in the background.

1. Select the kebab menu button (three vertical dots) to the right of the running app. Choose Manage background activity. The background activity of some apps cannot be managed from here.
   

2. Select the drop-down menu under Background Apps Permission. Choose Never to close it down or Power optimized to manage its performance. Alternatively, scroll down the screen and select Terminate to shut down the app and all its processes.