Microsoft is improving Windows 11 battery life with a new power saver

A couple of weeks ago, enthusiasts discovered references to the so-called "adaptive energy saver" in recent Windows 11 preview builds. Microsoft acknowledged the findings but added that it was not working properly at that point. Now, however, with the latest Canary build, the new adaptive energy saver is available in preview for users with Windows 11 laptops and tablets.

The current battery saver in Windows 11 is quite crude, with its rules based on your current battery level. You can set it to kick in upon reaching a certain battery level, say, 20%. When enabled, it dims the screen, disables a lot of visual effects, limits system and app background activities, and more, to squeeze out every minute of the battery.

With the adaptive energy saver, Microsoft is taking a different approach, forcing the operating system to turn on or off the energy saver based on more factors, such as the current power state or the system load. As such, you might get power saver enabled even at high battery levels, not just at 20% or 30%. In addition, it will not dim your screen, which is quite an important part for portable devices.

In the release notes for Windows 11 build 27898, which was released last week, Microsoft added that the new adaptive power saver is an opt-in experience. That means you will have to enable it manually, with percentage-based energy saver remaining the default. However, Microsoft is turning off adaptive energy saver for some insiders without their consent as part of the settings program. Still, you can turn it off in Settings > System > Power & Battery.

The new power saver for Windows 11 arrived shortly after the operating system received a lot of flak for being too resource-heavy, energy inefficient, and unoptimized for handheld gaming consoles. To address those concerns, Microsoft announced a "bloat-free" variant of Windows 11 specifically for portable gaming devices.