Windows 11 lock screen is finally getting a long-requested indicator

Several months ago, Microsoft started testing a redesigned battery indicator for Windows 11, finally fixing a long-time complaint about the indicator's poor readability and missing features. With the new version, the battery indicator is much bigger, it uses colors for different states, and lets you toggle on or off battery percentage. However, the Lock Screen remains unfixed, and its battery indicator is still borderline unreadable. Fortunately, Microsoft is finally addressing that.

The company has not officially confirmed it, but recent Windows 11 preview builds finally have the redesigned lock screen battery indicator. It has all the same features as its taskbar counterpart: bigger size, colors (yellow for battery saver, red for critical levels, and green for charging), and percentage. Its location remains unchanged in the bottom-right corner of the screen, but it is now much easier to read and understand at a quick glance.

If your tablet or laptop runs one of the recent Windows 11 preview builds, you can try enabling the new indicator to try it out. Just keep in mind that Microsoft is not shipping it yet. Brandon LeBlanc from the Windows Insider team posted on X and said that there are reasons why the new indicator is not publicly available. Upon turning the new indicator on, you will discover why it is not available to all users. There is no way to turn off battery percentage, colors are sometimes incorrect, and the indicator itself sometimes resets to the previous one.

If those do not sound serious enough to stay away and wait for a more polished version, here is how to enable the new lock screen battery indicator in Windows 11:

1. Download ViVeTool from GitHub and unpack the files in a convenient and easy-to-find folder.
2. Run Command Prompt as Administrator and navigate to the folder with the ViVeTool files using the CD command. For example, if you have placed ViVeTool in C:\Vive, type CD C:\Vive.
3. Type vivetool /enable /id:56328729,55467432,55648925 and press Enter.
4. Restart your computer.

Source: @phantomofearth on X