Windows describes ‘Power Plan’ as a collection of hardware and system settings that manage how your computer uses power. The plan, to a great extent, helps your system save energy, maximize its performance, or balance the two.

Windows users know how to manage Windows 7 power plan settings, Pro’s and con’s of the different Power Plans and how to troubleshoot Power Plans in Windows 7. Today, we will walk you through the process of managing power settings and creating custom plans in Windows 8. Let us see how to configure them.

Configure Power Plan Settings & Options in Windows 8

To start with, click on the battery icon visible on the taskbar of your Windows 8 computer screen and choose ‘More power options’.

The ‘More Power Options’ screen opens and from there you can select from the three predefined plans – Balanced, Power saver, or High performance, and change their plan settings by clicking on the ‘Change Plan Settings’ link. The last one i.e. High performance plan option remains hidden. you need to click on the drop-down arrow adjacent to ‘show additional plans’ to access it.

Now, you can change the settings of the selected power plan (Power Saver). Here, you can select/change the SLEEP and DISPLAY power-plan settings. For instance, you can set the time for turning off the display, decide the time to put the computer to sleep, and so on.

If you want, you can change the advanced power settings too. To do this, click on ‘Change advanced power settings’ link. Check the screen shot above.

Then, click on the ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable link’. This option allows you to fine-tune several power plan settings. Make the changes as per your requirements.

Create Custom Power Plan

If you wish, you can also create a Custom Plan. However for this, you need to go back to step 2 to access ‘More Power Options’ screen. There in the left-pane you can find the option – Create a Power Plan.

Click on the option to go to the Create a power plan window. There you can give your power plan a name and click on ‘Next’.

In the next screen you can choose the Sleep and the Display Settings you want to use and click the Create button.

That’s it!

You can now observe your custom power plan under the preferred plans list.

These answers to common Windows Power Plan FAQ may also interest you.