I'm having problems setting the default power scheme for my laptop

[Marcusmintus]

Dear all,

I'm trying to startup my laptop on balanced power setttings, as I'm getting annoyed at having to constantly have to switch to balanced, in order to save battery power from the default 'High Performance' setting.

I went onto the windows help and found the following:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc748940(v=ws.10).aspx

The command line is: powercfg -setactive SCHEME_GUID

Having used the command 'powercfg -list' It gave me the following:

Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (balanced)
Power Scheme GUID: [necessary string] (High Performance) *
Power Scheme GUID: [necessary string] (Power Saver)

I inputted the following: powercfg -setactive 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e and restarted my computer only to find that the 'high performance' setting was still the default one.

Can anyone shed some light on this please?

 

[Ztruker]

Can't you change it via Control Panel, Power Options?

Replace - with /, see if that makes a difference. Also issue the command from a Elevated Command Prompt.

C:\Users\rrkurtz>powercfg /setactive /?

POWERCFG /SETACTIVE <SCHEME_GUID>

Alias:
POWERCFG /S

Description:
Makes the specified power scheme active on the system.

Parameter List:
<SCHEME_GUID> Specifies a power scheme GUID. A power scheme GUID is
returned from the "POWERCFG /LIST" command.

Examples:
POWERCFG /SETACTIVE 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

 

[Marcusmintus]

Hi Ztruker,

No joy.

I tried the /setactive (I used the /s parameter as it's the same) before I put this post up. I've just tried your solution by running as administrator and opening up in the c:/windows/system32 directory (even though it said it was running as administrator in the description field at the top of the window). I thought it had worked as it started up in balanced mode during startup, but once the startup icons were all loaded in the icon notification bar in the bottom right by the time and date, it kicked back into high performance.

If I restart the computer in balanced mode with or without the charging lead in, it does the same - starts on balanced mode during startup and then kicks into High performance.