Powertoys: Battery tracker/charge manager

[orev]

Utility to allow monitoring battery, but more importantly ability to control the charge level of the battery (allow setting thresholds for battery charging and discharging). E.g. Charge battery until 85%, then stop charging until it drops to 50%. Avoiding 100% charge on a battery can prolong its life, and there is currently nothing that can do this.

[zbrozek]

I'd also like to have some analysis of why my battery is being drained. Something to guide the finger of blame - is it a particular website doing something wasteful inside of my browser, a terminal cursor blinking inefficiently, etc.

[aster94]

@orev what you are asking is an hardware request, this can't be accomplished, AFAIK, on software. Some laptops, like asus gm504 (i am sure) and lenovo tinkpad (i think) can do it

Anyway the tracker is completely feasible and i would like to have it 😁

[lenardg]

It would be also great if the tracker could track the maximum charge level, and how it changes over time. So you could see how fast or slow your battery is degrading (maximum charge / designed charge == battery weay). You already have a similar kind of report using powercfg /batteryreport, but that is more a point in time report, and is bad at tracking trends (unless you save the previous reports).

[MikeWilliams-UK]

Stopping the charge at a percentage is a going to be a great thing to have.
I have only ever seen it before on an IBM / Lenovo Thinkpad, so assumed it was specific to their hardware.
In the mean time you can use the excellent (IMHO) BatteryBar which also shows the wear on your battery.
See http://batterybarpro.com/

[BrianCatlin]

I would like to be able to see and manage the battery level in all devices, such as wireless keyboards and mice

[LeotomasMC]

not all wireless devices share their battery level, some do, but not every percentage (for example, a device may only report at 25% intervals or so), some do but windows doesnt know where, and the few that do work windows will automatically alert you at 5% and 1%. Now if by managing the battery level you mean stopping charge before 100%, thats literally impossible unless the hardware and software allow it in your wireless device.

[BrianCatlin]

Microsoft devices certainly report their power levels. Combining all the power level info into one place just makes sense

[Jay-o-Way]

Microsoft devices certainly report their power levels. Combining all the power level info into one place just makes sense

You mean, besides the Devices page in Settings?

[Jay-o-Way]

Now if by managing the battery level you mean stopping charge before 100%, thats literally impossible unless the hardware and software allow it in your wireless device.

I think that sums it up.

Even more: I often shut down my tablet pc while it's still connected. How can any software possibly have any influence at all when shut down? (it can't)

[scriptfx]

I think that battery control is an hw feature. If the elctronic parts do not support stopping the charge at a percentage, the battery is charged until its maximum.

I found that Microsoft Surface users can set up a limit of 50%. See more here.