Power plans in Windows allow users to manage how their computer uses power, which can be crucial for optimizing performance and battery life. This article will guide you through the process of managing power plan settings using the Command Prompt (CMD) in Windows. Understanding how to configure these settings can help you tailor your system's power consumption to your specific needs, whether you're looking to extend battery life on a laptop or maximize performance on a desktop.

Examples:

1. Viewing Available Power Plans: To list all available power plans on your system, open Command Prompt with administrative privileges and run the following command:

   powercfg /list

   This will display a list of all power plans, along with their GUIDs and names.

2. Changing the Active Power Plan: To change the active power plan, you need the GUID of the desired plan. For example, to set the High Performance plan as active, use the following command (replace <GUID> with the actual GUID of the High Performance plan):

   powercfg /setactive <GUID>

   Example:

   powercfg /setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

3. Creating a Custom Power Plan: To create a new custom power plan based on an existing one, use the following command:

   powercfg /duplicate scheme_current <NewPlanName>

   Example:

   powercfg /duplicate scheme_current "My Custom Plan"

4. Modifying Power Plan Settings: To modify specific settings within a power plan, use the following command structure:

   powercfg /change <setting_name> <value>

   For example, to change the sleep timeout for the active power plan to 30 minutes, use:

   powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 30

5. Exporting and Importing Power Plans: To export a power plan to a file, use the following command:

   powercfg /export <file_path> <GUID>

   Example:

   powercfg /export "C:\PowerPlans\HighPerformance.pow" 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

   To import a power plan from a file, use:

   powercfg /import <file_path>

   Example:

   powercfg /import "C:\PowerPlans\HighPerformance.pow"