Windows 10 Battery Life

[Mew]

I'm thinking about installing Windows 10 on my laptop in hopes of getting better battery life despite hating Windows 10 a lot because it's a giant downgrade compared to Windows 8 (removal/changing of start screen among other things). Has any of you guys seen a battery life increase of 25% or more? If not, I don't think it's worth the hassle of upgrading. 

[PillowSmoke]

I'm thinking about installing Windows 10 on my laptop in hopes of getting better battery life despite hating Windows 10 a lot because it's a giant downgrade compared to Windows 8 (removal/changing of start screen among other things). Has any of you guys seen a battery life increase of 25% or more? If not, I don't think it's worth the hassle of upgrading. 

 

I don't really think the improvements would yield that much in terms of battery life.

[Mew]

I don't really think the improvements would yield that much in terms of battery life.

 

I'll be satisfied if I can get at least 1 more hour from my laptop since battery life seems to have been tanking lately with every update to Windows 8. 

[Levent]

I'll be satisfied if I can get at least 1 more hour from my laptop since battery life seems to have been tanking lately with every update to Windows 8. 

not sure why but I had significantly lower battery life on windows 10 with drivers installed, I also noticed that windows 10 hogs up the ram more and keeps the hdd under load longer than windows8.1 did

[Mew]

What are other people's experience with battery life in Windows 10?

[Vebb]

Windows 10 has new batterysaving features. Depending on your system configurations you might get good results. I personally didn't see any big differenses when going from 8.1 to 10.

 

I would personally not reccomend installing windows 10 before it's ready. I would not reccommend upgrading from 8.1 to 10, but doing a clean install, if not you might get conflicts.

 

Windows 10 is not ready and the UI is broken in many ways. Its still going to be some years before they completly translate their whole UI to the new format.

[Sharp_3yE]

It is beta which means you wont like it. Battery will either be about the same or worse. It will also have bugs and apps will crash on you. Dont upgrade till it actually is released.

Also, you can make the start menu full screen. But to me there are a lot of awesome neat things especially having windows apps (universal apps) as in window mode which allows me to not have to switch back and fourth all the time from desktop to windows app or not needing the app loaded on the side but as a window.

[Mew]

It is beta which means you wont like it. Battery will either be about the same or worse. It will also have bugs and apps will crash on you. Dont upgrade till it actually is released.

Also, you can make the start menu full screen. But to me there are a lot of awesome neat things especially having windows apps (universal apps) as in window mode which allows me to not have to switch back and fourth all the time from desktop to windows app or not needing the app loaded on the side but as a window.

 

The problem that I had was that Windows 10 doesn't use the same layout as Windows 8's start screen which is really annoying. That combined with the new icons and horrible settings ui made me go back to Windows 8 within minutes on my desktop a couple months ago. 

[Speaker1264]

The problem that I had was that Windows 10 doesn't use the same layout as Windows 8's start screen which is really annoying. That combined with the new icons and horrible settings ui made me go back to Windows 8 within minutes on my desktop a couple months ago. 

Go download BatteryInfoView, check your battery's wear level.  Then recalibrate your laptop's battery.  To do this simply run the pc until the battery has completely drained and your computer has shut off, then allow the battery's voltage to settle, best to let it sit overnight.  Then plug the PC back in and let it charge.  it can take an additional couple of hours after it has hit 100% since the battery is warm, and as it cools it will be able to hold more charge.

 

Then once you check your wear level again it should have recalibrated itself, and be much more accurate than before, and hopefully it looks better.  If your wear level is less than 80% it might be time to get a new battery.  You can find really cheap laptop batteries on amazon, sometimes with higher capacities than the standard one.

[Opcode]

The problem that I had was that Windows 10 doesn't use the same layout as Windows 8's start screen which is really annoying. That combined with the new icons and horrible settings ui made me go back to Windows 8 within minutes on my desktop a couple months ago. 

So just enable full screen mode for the start menu?

 

The settings application looks a million times better than the traditional Win32 application.

[Sharp_3yE]

The problem that I had was that Windows 10 doesn't use the same layout as Windows 8's start screen which is really annoying. That combined with the new icons and horrible settings ui made me go back to Windows 8 within minutes on my desktop a couple months ago.

There are a few things I have to say about that

1. It's a beta. Dont be so hard on it. Windows 10 preview has changed a lot.

2. Windows 10 beta has changed, idk when you lasted used it so you might think its better now.

3. Yea, icons haven't been that good. It's a technical preview. This is the earliest they've shown us builds of windows. It's still a bit away from done.

4. You can try it again if you want but if you want the start screen then enable it in full screen mode in the settings.

I would suggest just staying on 8.1 until windows 10 is actually released. You find all the minor details annoying which would suggest that these preview builds are not for you. Just wait.

When I installed the windows 8 preview builds as my main OS I also had problems and it was annoying. I bought windows 8 when it was cheap (like 45 bucks or so) and installed it which made all the problems go away. Preview builds are not finished and are buggy. Things will look bad and not work correctly.

[Sharp_3yE]

not sure why but I had significantly lower battery life on windows 10 with drivers installed, I also noticed that windows 10 hogs up the ram more and keeps the hdd under load longer than windows8.1 did

It's because the software isn't done and not efficient yet. It's just not coded correctly yet.

[Mew]

There are a few things I have to say about that

1. It's a beta. Dont be so hard on it. Windows 10 preview has changed a lot.

2. Windows 10 beta has changed, idk when you lasted used it so you might think its better now.

3. Yea, icons haven't been that good. It's a technical preview. This is the earliest they've shown us builds of windows. It's still a bit away from done.

4. You can try it again if you want but if you want the start screen then enable it in full screen mode in the settings.

I would suggest just staying on 8.1 until windows 10 is actually released. You find all the minor details annoying which would suggest that these preview builds are not for you. Just wait.

When I installed the windows 8 preview builds as my main OS I also had problems and it was annoying. I bought windows 8 when it was cheap (like 45 bucks or so) and installed it which made all the problems go away. Preview builds are not finished and are buggy. Things will look bad and not work correctly.

 

I've used Windows 8 since the Developer Preview I think and even the leaked builds prior to that. I'm fine with the bugs and everything, I'm just disappointed that Microsoft would want to change something so perfect as Windows 8 and tarnish it with Windows 7 stuff. I'm downloading Windows 10 right now and installing it tonight once I get back home. 

 

[GoodBytes]

not sure why but I had significantly lower battery life on windows 10 with drivers installed, I also noticed that windows 10 hogs up the ram more and keeps the hdd under load longer than windows8.1 did

You may need the latest Windows 10 official drivers for all your hardware.

[Levent]

You may need the latest Windows 10 official drivers for all your hardware.

for mobile amd graphics they are non existent which it didnt made any difference since egpu was turned off and I used the latest available drivers

[GoodBytes]

for mobile amd graphics they are non existent which it didnt made any difference since egpu was turned off and I used the latest available drivers

AMD hasn't released any new official (non-beta) drivers for a while.

But in your computer, you have more than GPU. How about your sound chip? SATA Controller? Bluetooth? Wireless? Ethernet? And is Device manager showing any yellow "!" icon? Or can't identify some devices?

[Levent]

AMD hasn't released any new official (non-beta) drivers for a while.

But in your computer, you have more than GPU. How about your sound chip? SATA Controller? Bluetooth? Wireless? Ethernet? And is Device manager showing any yellow "!" icon? Or can't identify some devices?

everything was installed with the latest drivers ,I know what I am doing.

[Sharp_3yE]

I've used Windows 8 since the Developer Preview I think and even the leaked builds prior to that. I'm fine with the bugs and everything, I'm just disappointed that Microsoft would want to change something so perfect as Windows 8 and tarnish it with Windows 7 stuff. I'm downloading Windows 10 right now and installing it tonight once I get back home.

Oh also, windows 10 has changed a lot since a few months ago. Do you have it installed yet and if so what do you think of it?

[Mew]

Oh also, windows 10 has changed a lot since a few months ago. Do you have it installed yet and if so what do you think of it?

 

Installed it yesterday on my laptop and I've already reinstalled 8.1. It's a little too buggy for a laptop. I couldn't find drivers for Intel graphics, brightness wasn't able to be changed so I was staring at a torch. It does feel slightly faster but initial setup froze on me so I ended up making 2 accounts . Microsoft sure has a long road in front of them if they expect to perfect it by the end of July. 

[Sharp_3yE]

Installed it yesterday on my laptop and I've already reinstalled 8.1. It's a little too buggy for a laptop. I couldn't find drivers for Intel graphics, brightness wasn't able to be changed so I was staring at a torch. It does feel slightly faster but initial setup froze on me so I ended up making 2 accounts . Microsoft sure has a long road in front of them if they expect to perfect it by the end of July.

you have to use old drivers. There aren't any for windows 10 specifically.

Also, I'm going to say I TOLD YEA SO! LOL

[Mew]

you have to use old drivers. There aren't any for windows 10 specifically.

Also, I'm going to say I TOLD YEA SO! LOL

 

The Intel graphics driver refused to install because it said something about wrong os version or something. I should had just extracted it and install via device manager but I was in a hurry lol and my eyeballs were just burning cause I was unable to adjust screen brightness.