(Credit: René Ramos, Lily Yeh; Microsoft; Igor Kyrlytsya / Shutterstock)
Batteries power our favorite electronic devices, but they're not meant to last forever. The good news is that Windows laptops have a battery report feature that breaks down whether your battery is still kicking or is on its last legs. All you need to do is enter one simple line of code.
The report will take the form of an HTML file saved onto your drive that will show you battery usage data, capacity history, and life estimates. If the battery needs to be replaced, this report will tell you, long before it has a chance to fail. Here's how to generate the report and what to look for.
Generate Battery Report in Windows 10
For this task, you'll need Windows PowerShell, a built-in command line tool you may have never used before. The easiest way to access it is to right-click on the Start icon and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the menu that appears. A pop-up window may ask for permission to make changes to your device; say yes.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)The blue PowerShell command window will appear, allowing you to enter commands to automate certain tasks within Windows 10. Type the following command into the PowerShell window, then press Enter:
powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery-report.html"
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)The first part of the code will generate an HTML file that contains the battery life report. The second part in quotes dictates where the file will be saved on your computer and what it will be called. In this instance, a file named battery-report.html will be saved to the C drive. You can now safely close PowerShell.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)Open File Explorer and access the C drive. There, you should find the battery life report saved as an HTML file. Double-click the file to open it in your default web browser.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)Generate Battery Report in Windows 11
The process works similarly in Windows 11. Right-click on the Start icon, but now you will select Windows Terminal (Admin) instead. Click Yes when the pop-up window asks for permission to make changes to your device.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)This will open Windows Terminal, a tabbed terminal emulator that can run PowerShell, Command Prompt, and other command-line programs. PowerShell will be open by default, so enter the following code and press Enter:
powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery-report.html"
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)Once the command is entered, PowerShell will tell you the name of the generated battery life report and where it has been saved on your computer. You can see here that it's named battery-report.html and is saved to the C drive. You can now close Windows Terminal.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)Open File Explorer and click the OS (C:) entry under This PC. The battery report will be saved in this folder as an HTML file. Double-click to open the file in your default web browser.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)View the Battery Report
The report will outline the health of your laptop battery, how well it has been doing, and how much longer it might last. At the top of the battery report, you'll see basic information about your computer, followed by the battery's specs.
Under Recent Usage, take note of each time the laptop ran on battery power or was attached to AC power. Every drain over the last three days is tracked in the Battery Usage section. You can also get a full history of the battery's usage under the Usage History section.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)The Battery Capacity History section shows how the capacity has changed over time. On the right is Design Capacity, or how much the battery was designed to handle. On the left is Full Charge Capacity, where you can see the battery's current capacity on a full charge, which will likely decline over time the more you use the device.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)This leads us to the Battery Life Estimates section. On the right, you can see how long it should last based on design capacity; on the left, you see how long it's actually lasting. A current, final battery-life estimation is at the bottom of the report. In this case, my PC would last 6:02:03 at design capacity, but will currently only hold out for 4:52:44.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)If you don't like what your battery report has to say, these easy tips can help you squeeze longer battery life out of your current laptop. If you're ready to buy a new computer altogether, these laptops have been rated to have the highest battery capacity.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)