Posey's Tips & Tricks
Windows 11 Device Charging Confusion
Is your Windows 11 machine not charging all the way? That's not a bug, it's a feature.
If it seems as though your laptop just doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to, there are a couple of possible reasons why. The first possible reason is that the battery is wearing out. The lithium ion batteries that are used in laptops can only be cycled so many times. As the battery ages, it might not hold a charge quite as well as it did when the battery was new.
The other possible reason for your laptop battery not lasting as long as it should is that software on your laptop might be specifically designed to prevent you from getting a full charge.
I have occasionally heard stories of various smartphone manufacturers who allegedly use software to intentionally diminish the phone's performance and battery life over time as a way of driving customers to purchase a new phone. However, that's not what I am talking about. Believe it or not, the software-driven decrease in battery life that can occur on Windows 11 devices is actually done for your benefit. Let me explain why.
As I said earlier, the lithium ion batteries that are used in laptops wear out with use. However, using and then recharging the batteries is not the only thing that impacts the battery's longevity. Keeping a battery charged to 100 percent can also reduce a battery's lifespan if you do so over a prolonged period of time.
This is where smart charging comes into play. When the smart charging feature is enabled, the device generally will not charge to 100 percent. It might instead for example, charge to 80 percent. Each PC manufacturer has its own battery guidelines, so the actual level to which the battery charges will be different from one laptop vendor to the next.
So how do you know if your PC is using smart charging and how much of a charge the battery actually has? Again, each vendor has its own way of doing things, but some laptop manufacturers will actually display a popup message indicating that smart charging is being used. If you look at Figure 1. for example, you can see what one of these popups looks like on a Microsoft Surface device.
[Click on image for larger view.] Figure 1. Microsoft Surface devices will actually tell you that smart charging is being used.
Again, not every vendor enables smart charging, and not all of those vendors who do enable it will display popup notifications. A more vendor neutral way of finding out whether or not your device is using smart charging is to simply hover your mouse over the battery icon. As you can see in Figure 2, for example, when I hover over the battery icon on my PC, I receive a message indicating that my battery is charged to 79 percent. The message goes on to say that my laptop is fully smart charged. Keep in mind that my laptop has been plugged in all day, but the smart charging software will prevent the battery from being charged to more than 80 percent (though the actual percentage varies among PC manufacturers).
[Click on image for larger view.] Figure 2. My PC is fully smart charged at 79 percent.
This of course raises the question of what you should do if you need additional battery life. From a battery longevity standpoint, it's best to leave smart charging enabled if you can. However, you can disable smart charging (which will allow your battery to charge to 100 percent) if you know that you will be powering your laptop from the battery for an extended period of time (such as during a long flight).
The problem is that because every manufacturer does things a little bit differently, it means that the technique used for charging the battery to 100 percent is going to be different across brands. On a Microsoft Surface device, you can control the smart charging settings through the Surface app. Just open the app and then expand the Battery and Charging section, as shown in Figure 3. You can then click the Charge to 100 percent button to override the smart charging feature.
[Click on image for larger view.] Figure 3. You can click the Charge to 100 percent button to override the smart charging feature.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.