Battery Draining Quickly: Improve Battery Life (iPhone, Android, Laptop) (Windows)

Background system processes can do more than just slow your computer down, they can be the reason for the battery draining quickly issue. Close any background applications you don't need to be running while you are on battery power, and disable automatic updates, scheduled tasks, search indexing etc.

To find out more about ending background processes on your computer or mobile device, check out the don't know how to close (quit) programs/applications.

When people use their computers for hours and decide to take a break, they leave their computers running instead of shutting them down and save energy.

Windows offers Hibernate mode, as a way to save energy, prolong the life of your laptop's battery and keep everything you've been working on.

Hibernate mode allows your laptop to completely power down and use zero power, so if you aren't going to use your laptop for another hour or more, put it into Hibernate mode, instead of shutting it down completely. The only way you can wake your laptop up is by pressing the power button.

You might also want to set it to hibernate every time you close the lid.

To do that:

Start menu -> Type Lid into the Search programs and files text field -> Click Change what closing the lid does -> Select Hibernate from the When I close the lid menu under On Battery -> Save the changes

Your virus scanner and disk defragmenter and automatic updates, are scheduled to run themselves on a regular basis, often without your knowledge or permission and they consume power. This is the main reason why it is recommended that you allow scheduled tasks running only when your laptop is connected to an AC adapter. 

To modify the scheduled tasks:

Control Panel -> (System and Security) -> Administrative Tools -> Task Scheduler  -> 

-> Select Task Scheduler (Local) in the left window pane -> Select every active task that has a future date in the Next Run Time column and do the following:

1. Double-click the task.
   
   
2. Select the Conditions tab.
   
   
3. Check the first two power options: Start the task only if the computer is on AC power and Stop if the computer switches to battery power if they are not already checked.
   
   
4. Click the back button (upper left side of the window) to return to the list of active tasks and repeat the procedure.

If you don't have the AC adapter by your side, and you desperately need your laptop, changing the power plan will buy you a few minutes. Windows offers power plans that can quickly change your laptop’s power settings to different profiles. The default power plan is the Balanced (recommended).

To change the power plan:

Start -> Control Panel (or type control panel in the start menu search box) -> (System and Security) -> Power Options -> Click on Power saver 

You can also modify the power saver plan, by clicking Change plan settings and select Change advanced power settings

You can change a variety of settings here, even though the Power saver default settings are fairly optimal. You can make the settings even more aggressive in some areas, including adjusting the hard drive to power off quickly and telling your device to slow down the processor instead of turning on the fan if it becomes hot. Both of these changes will save power.

Maybe too many fragmented files slow down your operating system and it consumes more power to perform the necessary functions.

Getting rid of fragmented files should speed up you computer. To learn how to defragment the hard disk drive and speed up your computer, check out the computer is slow solutions.

If you are not familiar with Windows quite well and you don't want to change settings on your own, you can use the Windows Troubleshooter. It will scan your system for common battery draining issues and automatically fix them. 

To activate this tool:

Start -> Control Panel -> Troubleshooting -> View All (in the left window pane)-> Power -> wait for your problems to be automatically fixed.