Users should get up to 11 percent longer battery life

Apr 19, 2017 04:36 GMT  ·  By

With Windows 10 Creators Update now available for download, Microsoft can concentrate entirely on the next big milestone for its latest operating system, especially because some of the features that were originally promised to ship this spring didn’t make the cut.

One such example is a power slider that was supposed to provide users with more options when it comes to managing power settings, but it now looks like this feature has evolved and is planned to come back in Windows 10 Redstone 3 as power throttling.

Microsoft says that power throttling is already part of the latest Windows 10 preview build (16176) and can be tested by users with latest-generation processors, including Skylake and Kaby Lake. More processors should get support for it in the coming updates.

The power slider is back

What power throttling does is to optimize processes so that background tasks use only minimal power to run, thus making sure that the impact on battery life is as low as possible. This helps Windows 10 offer up to 11 percent longer battery life by cutting CPU power consumption, Microsoft says, and everything happens all automatically, as Windows 10 can detect apps that can run on reduced power mode.

“To give great performance to the apps you’re using, while at the same time power throttling background work, we built a sophisticated detection system into Windows. The OS identifies work that is important to you (apps in the foreground, apps playing music, as well as other categories of important work we infer from the demands of running apps and the apps the user interacts with),” Microsoft explains.

Users will be provided with a new power slider in the Action Center that will allow them to adjust power settings and they’ll also be allowed to opt out specific apps from power throttling.

And last but not least, Microsoft says that power throttling is just a codename for this new feature, and it’s very likely to change before it goes live in the Windows 10 Redstone 3 in the fall.