As we shared with our readers last night, Microsoft has introduced a number of new features with Windows 10 Creators Update preview build 15014. These features and improvements also included an experimental Windows 10 power slider that will help users trade off performance for more battery juice. Promising to offer more control over battery life, the software giant said it is working with manufacturers to introduce more battery-centric features and improvements, along with other UI changes.
Windows 10 power slider will optimize hardware to improve battery life
Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Insider Preview includes a new power-slider feature for its Windows 10 Creators Update. Scheduled for a public release in April this year, Windows 10 Creators Update will bring a number of new features that the company has been testing with the help of a strong Insiders community.
Coming back to the power slider, Microsoft detailed in last night’s post on Windows 10 Creators Update build 15014 that it is working with its OEM partners to introduce better options for users to to “‘tune’ their PC for different scenarios.”
A person playing a game, for example, might be willing to have a few less FPS when on a long flight if it gets them more battery life – whereas the same person playing the same game, when near a power supply, may want top-end CPU performance to eek out every ounce of performance they can get.
While the Windows 10 power slider isn’t “actually working” yet to tweak power and performance configurations, Microsoft is encouraging Insiders to give early feedback on UI. It is a UI-only implementation at this stage.
“We are conducting experiments on features which help improve battery life for Windows devices,” Dona Sarkar said. She also encouraged Insiders to give feedback under the Power and Battery > Settings category in the Feedback Hub. “We’ll be working with OEMs to determine the best settings for their customers, so that they can ship those on new Windows 10 PCs,” the company said of the future plans. This probably means that different OEMs will offer different settings to help users get more battery life (or performance) using this Windows 10 power slider.
The Windows 10 power slider will offer a quicker way for Windows users to optimize their power settings from the Taskbar. It has been suggested that the new devices shipping with the Windows 10 Creators Update will debut this feature.
Microsoft also introduced a new option for users to allow Windows 10 to automatically free up space on a PC by deleting temporary files and items that have been in the recycle bin for 30 days. While turned off by default, Windows 10 Insiders in the Fast ring can enable it from System > Storage Settings and configure what it can clean up.
Windows 10 Creators Update is scheduled for an April release, and if the steady stream of new features and improvements is any hint, it’s going to be one feature-packed “feature upgrade”.
– Relevant: Microsoft to kill original Windows 10 version in March
The post New Windows 10 Power Slider Lets You “Eek Out Every Ounce of Performance” or Battery Life by Rafia Shaikh appeared first on Wccftech.