14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 11 comes with many great improvements, including tabs in File Explorer and a significantly upgraded Task Manager, but at the same time, it also packs features that you don’t normally observe at the first glance.
For example, while the battery information that you see in Settings or in system tray is just basic and only shows the current level for your device, Windows 11 can also generate a more detailed battery report.
As you can easily figure out, this report includes much more information about the battery in your device, including here the estimated capacity.
And as Apple itself has taught us after the iPhone scandal that caused so much controversy, the battery capacity is extremely important, as it could lead to all kinds of problems with the device, including unexpected shutdowns.
The batteries in our devices, be they smartphones, tablets, or laptops, degrade over time, so their capacity would slowly go down. In some cases, a worn-out battery could even suffer a visible expansion, in which case you should stop using the device immediately.
Microsoft itself explains what you need to do if you notice the battery of your device is very degraded.
“When a battery has deteriorated a lot, battery life might be very short or the lithium-ion cells may expand. When a battery expands from deterioration, it’s most often caused by the formation of non-flammable carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. If your device’s battery has expanded visibly beyond the mechanical enclosure, we recommend that you stop using the device. You should handle the device with caution to prevent putting pressure on or puncturing the battery cell,” the company explains.
How to generate the report
The first thing you need to do in order to generate the report is to log in as an administrator. Then, launch a Command Prompt window with administrator rights using any of the many methods available on Windows 11 (for instance, just type “cmd” in the Start menu, and you should see a shortcut to launch Command Prompt; right-click the icon and select the option called “Run as administrator”).
Once you’ve done this, type the following command to generate the battery report:
powercfg /batteryreport
The process could take a while, but give it some time and make sure you don’t close the Command Prompt window before you see a confirmation message that the battery report is ready.
In case you’re wondering how you can access the battery report, all the information that you need is provided to you in the Command Prompt window. The report is generated as an HTML file, so you’ll have to open it in a browser, such as Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.
Browse to the location that is indicated in Command Prompt and you should see the new HTML file that includes information on the battery, including the installed battery capacity, the recent usage, and the battery usage.
Needless to say, the lower the battery capacity, the more often you’ll have to charge it. If possible, you can always replace a degraded battery in a Windows PC with a new one and therefore bring its performance back to the level that you got when the computer was new.
On the other hand, some new devices, such as Microsoft Surface models, make it much harder to replace the battery at home, so your best option is to just head over to a service center or a Microsoft Store and ask for assistance. The process isn’t necessarily cheap, but at the end of the day, you could end up with a device that feels almost like new.