How to Create a Custom Power Plan on Windows 11 & 10

Create a Custom Power Plan on Windows 11 & 10 computer to optimize performance and efficiency

Whenever you use a system, especially laptops and portable devices, you have to balance the performance as well as battery life. For this purpose, power management tools have been added to Windows systems.

Power management is important for all operating systems including W11 & W10 OS. Windows systems like 10 and W11 come with attractive designs and better features as well as different power plans. Since power settings are configurable, you can manage them for different scenarios and decide how much power to use and when.

For this power management, all Windows OS systems have three default power modes: Balanced, Best Power Efficiency and Best Performance.

In Windows OS, users are allowed to change default power plans according to their needs. Another good thing is that Windows OS also allows you to create custom power plans, which you will learn about in this guide.

Through the Custom Power Plan feature, you can fine-tune your system’s power consumption, balance performance and energy efficiency to suit your specific needs.

If you are also looking to create custom power configurations in Windows, you will learn all the necessary steps in the guide.

What Are Power Plans In Windows OS?

Power Plans in Windows OS are pre-configured sets of hardware and system settings that automatically manage how your computer uses power.

Windows 11 & 10 come with three default power plans: Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance. Since all these default plans are pre-configured, you just need to adjust them according to your preferences. Each power plan is smartly designed to meet different user scenarios. But the problem is that sometimes these pre-configured plans may not fulfill your specific needs.

Keeping this in mind, Windows OS also provides a custom power plan management facility so that users can configure them according to their specific tasks and scenarios.

Benefits of Creating a Custom Power Plan

The default power plans have been implemented after a lot of testing by developers. So they are good enough for most users and should not need to be changed.

But if you feel that changing the default power plan can help you manage power better, custom power plans let you customize the settings to suit your specific needs.

Whether you are a gamer looking for maximum performance or a business professional who needs long battery life during meetings, a custom power plan can help you achieve your goals.

Way To Create a Custom Power Plan on Windows 11 & W10

Custom power plan configuration completely depends on how Windows reacts in different situations. Windows users can create and customize power plan settings through the control panel and Windows settings app.

Let’s see how to create a power Plan in Windows 11 & Windows 10 with custom settings.

Step 01 Access Power Options On Windows

Press “Win + R” to open the Run command window on your PC.
Type “Control Panel” in the text field and hit the “OK” button.

Now select the “Large icon” or “Small icon” from the “View by” drop-down section.

Find and click the “Power Options” from the available options.

Step 02 Create a New Power Plan

Once you’re in the Power Options menu, click the “Create a Plan” option from the left sidebar.

**Choose Create a Custom Power Plan on Windows**

Before creating a new custom power plan, you have to choose the base power plan (Balanced, Power Saver or High Performance) as a starting point.

In our case, we selected the “Power Saver” plan because we want to create a custom power plan to save battery life. If you are looking for improved performance, select the “High Performance” plan.

Next, type the name of the new power plan and click “next”. Find it under the “Plan Name” section.

Step 03 Configure Power Plan Settings

Configure Display and Sleep options.

Adjust Display Settings: Choose when the display should turn off after inactivity and put the PC to sleep.
Modify Sleep Hibernate Options: Decide when your PC should enter sleep or hibernate mode.

Step0 4 Save Custom Power Plan Settings

After configuring your settings, click “Create” to save your custom power plan. (check the above screenshot)
Done!! Now newly created custom power plan will be available in the “Power Options” section that you can select and activate anytime.

How To Customize A Power Plan On W11 & W10 Laptops/PCs

Now you know how to create a custom power plan on Windows OS based laptops/computers and how easy it is. After creating a custom power plan, your first step should be to customize it so that you can use it effectively.

Here are some of the common customizations you can configure for your system.

You can decide when to turn off the hard disk (not the SSD).
Adjust the system’s sleep mode.
Control important battery notifications.
Configure processor power management.
Activate wake time.
Etc

To Edit a Custom Power Plan on Windows 11 & Windows 10 Computers or Laptops:

Open “Control Panel”.
Navigate to “Hardware and Sound” >>> select “Power Options”.
Once you are in “Power Options”, find your custom Power Plan and click “Change plan settings”.

Now click the “Change Advanced Power Settings” link to edit settings.

Now “Advanced Settings” will appear on your PC. Here you can customize different settings. Customization options may be different for laptops and desktop computers.

Choose the “Hard disk” option to specify when to turn it off.
You can set the power mode for the “Wireless Adapter Settings” option which can help you save the battery of your laptop.
Adjust the “sleep” option with related settings to decide when the computer should sleep in battery mode or when plugged in.
From the “Display” option, you can control or manage when the display should turn off automatically.
The “battery” option allows you to control critical battery notification, critical battery action, critical battery level, low battery level, low battery notification, low battery action and reserved battery level.
You can also edit “Processor power management” (PPM) settings to change the processor’s efficiency at the software level.

These are some settings that you can customize for the best-optimized power plan. Power plan customization is not a big task, but you should adjust them properly. Creating a well-optimized power plan offers several advantages:

Improve Battery Life on Laptops: Minimizing unnecessary power consumption and extend the battery life of your laptop.
Enhance System Performance: Well-optimized custom plans allow you to maximize system performance when needed.
Reducing Energy Consumption: A well-balanced custom power plan management reduces the overall energy consumption and makes your system more eco-friendly.

How To Delete A Power Plan On Windows 11

Creating a custom power plan is a good idea if you know how to customize a power plan for the best results. As you can see, you are allowed to change or edit different hardware-related settings for best power management.

But what do you do if the customizations you made are not working as per your expectations or you are facing any problems? In our personal view, default power plans are very well designed for best performance with proper power management. So, you do not need to modify it. Simple switch between default power modes and use your system efficiently.

But if you are facing any kind of issues after custom power plan configuration then you can delete it anytime.

Open the Control Panel on your system.
Select “Power Options” from the available options.
Make sure the power plan that you want to remove or delete permanently is not selected. After that click the “Change Plan Settings” link next to the custom power plan that you want to remove.

Now click the “delete this plan” option and then hit “OK” from the confirmation window.

After following the above steps, the selected power plan will be removed permanently and it will no longer be available on your system.

CONCLUSION

These are straightforward instructions to create a custom power plan on Windows 11 / 10 laptops and PCs. If you are a gamer, editor or a casual user, create and customize a power plan to enhance your system performance and manage power consumption effectively.

Default power plans are enough for most users and they can adjust them according to their needs. But if you want to configure your system for a specific reason, create a power plan and customize it for the best result.

It’s important to understand that “power plan” and “power mode” are different from each other. Although, both the features have some similarities, their functions and behavior are different. While Power Mode in Windows systems allows the system to optimize battery life on laptops and tablets, Power Plan lets you optimize power usage for desktops, laptops, and tablets.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. How many custom power plans can I create on Windows 11?

Ans. Windows OS allows you to create as many custom power plans according to your personal needs, limited only by your system’s storage capacity.

Q2. Can I share my custom power plan with others?

Ans. Yes, if you want you can easily export your custom power plan settings using the Command Prompt and share the file with other users.

Q3. What happens if I delete a custom power plan?

Ans. If you delete a custom power plan, all the settings will be removed immediately and the system will select a plan from the default power plans for you. But you can always create a new one.

Q4. How can I reset all power plans to default settings?

Ans. To reset power plans to their default settings, use the Command Prompt with the command powercfg -restoredefaultschemes.

Q5. Are custom power plans available on all Windows 11 & 10 editions?

Ans. Yes, Windows OS offers the same power plans including a custom plan for all Windows 11 & 10 with Home, Pro, and Enterprise versions.