How to turn On or Off Energy Saver in Microsoft Edge

What is Microsoft Edge?

Microsoft Edge is a web browser that launched on January 15, 2020, and it’s available for both Windows and macOS. Edge is known for being fast, secure, and packed with privacy features.

Why Use Energy Saver?

Energy saver mode helps your computer’s battery last longer. This mode reduces power use by limiting how hard the Microsoft Edge browser works. Limiting the browser’s work is especially helpful when using a laptop computer.

How Energy Saver Works

Microsoft Edge’s energy saver mode helps your laptop battery last longer by using less power. The energy saver mode puts background tabs to sleep and lowers how much work your computer’s processor does. This allows your laptop to run longer when not plugged in.

• Puts background tabs to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity
• Reduces CPU usage so your system can focus on other apps
• May cause videos to play less smoothly or animations to slow down

Energy saver automatically turns on when a laptop battery is unplugged. The Energy saver feature stays active until the laptop is plugged back in, or until the battery completely drains.

Will I notice a difference? You might see minor slowdowns when browsing, but battery life improves significantly.

Two Power-Saving Options

Microsoft Edge has two main ways to save power: Balanced Savings and Maximum Savings. Balanced Savings is good for everyday use, helping your battery last longer without slowing down your browser much. Maximum Savings is for when you need to get the most battery life possible, even if it means things run a bit slower.

This setting balances battery life and browser speed. When unplugged, moderate power-saving steps kick in. You should notice little to no slowdown. If your battery gets low, stronger power-saving steps activate. You may see some slowdown, like less smooth videos. A heart pulse icon appears in your toolbar.

Maximum Savings

The Energy Saver feature in Microsoft Edge conserves battery power for extended periods without charging. When unplugged, strong power-saving actions activate automatically, which may cause visible performance slowdowns. A heart pulse icon displays on the toolbar whenever the computer is unplugged.

Learn More

To learn more about how Microsoft Edge helps your battery last longer, check out Microsoft’s official guides. They explain features like sleeping tabs and efficiency mode in detail. You can get more battery life and reduce how much power your browser uses.

Energy saver | Extend battery life with Microsoft Edge Get on average 25 more minutes of battery life with Microsoft Edge Energy saver. Reduce resource usage, customize settings, and keep tabs efficient.

Option 1Use the Performance Icon

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Do one of the following:

   • Click the Performance (heart pulse) icon on the toolbar, OR
   • Click ⚙️ the Settings and more (3 dots) button, click More tools, then click Performance
3. Turn On or Off “Save battery with energy saver” in the Performance menu.

Option 2Use Settings

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. Click ⚙️ the Settings and more (3 dots) button, then click Settings.
3. Click System and performance in the left pane, then click Performance.

You can turn Microsoft Edge’s energy saver on or off directly from the browser’s settings menu.

Turn On Energy Saver

This is the default setting.

1. Under Power, turn on Enable energy saver.
2. If your device has a battery, select Balanced (default) or Maximum savings.
3. If your device has a battery, turn On or Off “Use energy saver even when connected to power.”

Turn Off Energy Saver

1. Under Power, turn off Enable energy saver.

Option 3Enable for All Users

You can turn on Microsoft Edge’s energy saver for everyone who uses your computer by changing a system-wide setting called the EfficiencyModeEnabled policy. Administrator access is required for this. Using this setting helps ensure all users benefit from the browser’s power-saving features automatically.

This setting uses a specific configuration for Microsoft Edge called the EfficiencyModeEnabled policy.

Enable Energy Saver for All Users

This action overrides and grays out Options One and Two.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v EfficiencyModeEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Disable Energy Saver for All Users

This action overrides and grays out Options One and Two.

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v EfficiencyModeEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Allow User Choice (Default)

This is the default setting. It allows using Options One and Two.

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge" /v EfficiencyModeEnabled /f

Summary

Microsoft Edge’s energy saver mode is a great tool to help your laptop’s battery last longer and reduce resource use on any computer.