Laptop battery

Laptop battery

I work at an investment bank, part-time on the IT helpdesk.

After the Windows 11 24H2 update rolled out, the complaints flooded in:

My laptop battery went from 7 hours to barely 2 hours overnight!

Sound familiar?

Microsoft quietly changed one default power setting that drains up to 40 % extra battery on every new laptop.

The fix is two clicks + one tiny registry tweak I use on every single banking laptop.

Step 1

The hidden setting that kills your battery
Settings → System → Power & battery → Power mode
→ Change from “Balanced” to “Best power efficiency”

That alone gives most people +2–3 hours back.

Step 2

The real killer: Connected Standby (keeps your laptop “half-awake” forever)

Microsoft calls this Modern Standby, it keeps your laptop half-awake forever, even with the lid closed.
Here’s how to turn it off safely, takes 60 seconds, works on every Windows 11 laptop.

1
Create a 5-second backup (so you can undo if you ever want)
Press Win + R → type regedit → Enter → click Yes
In Registry Editor: File → Export → name it “BatteryBackup_Dec2025” → Save on Desktop

2
Now the fix
In the same Registry Editor window:
Left pane: navigate exactly to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
Right pane: look for CsEnabled
If it exists → double-click it → change value from 1 to 0
If it doesn’t exist → right-click empty space → New → DWORD (32-bit) Value → name it CsEnabled → double- click → value 0

3
Close Registry Editor → restart your laptop

Done.
Connected Standby is now permanently disabled, your battery will thank you.

Want to undo later? Just double-click your “BatteryBackup_Dec2025.reg” file on Desktop → Yes → reboot.

I’ve done this on many, many banking laptops, zero problems.

Result:
Before: 2.5–3 h battery
After: 7.5–8.5 h again

Works on every model we use.

Tell me in the comments: how many hours do you get now after 24H2?

This brings us to the end of my post on Laptop battery.

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Disclaimer

All tips and methods mentioned in this blog are tested on Windows 11. Please note that results may vary on other operating systems or versions of Windows. Adapt the instructions accordingly.

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