Advanced Power Settings in Windows allow users to fine-tune how their computer manages power consumption. This feature is particularly useful for optimizing performance, extending battery life, and managing hardware behavior. In this article, we will explore how to access and configure these settings using both the graphical user interface (GUI) and the Command Prompt (CMD).

Accessing Advanced Power Settings via GUI

1. Open Power Options:

   • Click on the Start menu and type "Control Panel" to open it.
   • Navigate to Hardware and Sound > Power Options.

2. Select a Power Plan:

   • Choose the power plan you want to configure. You can select from Balanced, Power Saver, or High Performance. Click on Change plan settings next to your selected plan.

3. Access Advanced Settings:

   • Click on Change advanced power settings. This will open a new window where you can adjust various power settings.

4. Configure Settings:

   • In the Advanced settings window, you can expand different categories such as Hard disk, Sleep, USB settings, Processor power management, etc., to customize their behavior.
   • For example, to change the sleep settings, expand Sleep and adjust the Sleep after and Hibernate after options.

5. Apply Changes:

   • After configuring the desired settings, click Apply and then OK to save the changes.

Configuring Advanced Power Settings via CMD

For users who prefer using the command line, Windows provides the powercfg command to manage power settings.

1. Open Command Prompt:

   • Press Win + R, type cmd, and press Enter to open the Command Prompt.

2. List Available Power Schemes:

   • Use the following command to list all available power schemes:

     powercfg /list

   • Note the GUID of the power scheme you want to modify.

3. Modify a Power Setting:

   • To change a specific power setting, use the powercfg /change command. For example, to set the sleep timeout to 30 minutes for the current power scheme, use:

     powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 30

   • Replace standby-timeout-ac with the appropriate setting identifier and 30 with your desired timeout in minutes.

4. Export and Import Power Schemes:

   • To export a power scheme to a file, use:

     powercfg /export "C:\path\to\file.pow" SCHEME_GUID

   • To import a power scheme from a file, use:

     powercfg /import "C:\path\to\file.pow"

5. Restore Default Settings:

   • To restore the default power settings, use:

     powercfg /restoredefaultschemes

These methods allow you to efficiently manage and customize power settings in Windows, whether you prefer a graphical interface or command-line operations.