What you will achieve

Switch Windows power mode to Best performance so the CPU and GPU are not throttled by power saver — on laptops plugged in or desktops that feel sluggish during everyday tasks.

1) Change power mode in Settings (Windows 11)

Open Settings → System → Power & battery (desktop: Settings → System → Power).
Find Power mode and select Best performance.
On laptops, this setting may apply per power source — set it separately for Plugged in and On battery if both appear.

2) Use the legacy power slider (Windows 10)

Click the battery icon in the system tray.
Drag the slider to Best performance (far right).
Or open Settings → System → Power & sleep → Additional power settings and select the High performance plan.

3) Select High performance plan in Control Panel

When Settings does not show Best performance (some corporate images hide it):

Press Win + R, type powercfg.cpl, press Enter.
Choose High performance. If missing, run:

powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

This restores the High performance plan GUID. Select it and close.

4) Verify the change took effect

Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) → Performance tab.
Under CPU, base speed should reach advertised turbo more readily under load.
Run a previously sluggish app and compare responsiveness.

5) Battery trade-offs on laptops

Best performance increases fan noise and reduces battery life — often 20–40% faster drain. Switch back to Balanced on battery for travel. Some OEM tools (Lenovo Vantage, Dell Power Manager) override Windows power mode; align both to avoid conflicting profiles.

6) Ultimate Performance plan (Workstation editions)

Windows 11 Pro for Workstations and some Pro installs expose Ultimate Performance via PowerShell:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

Select it in powercfg.cpl for zero idle throttling on plugged-in workstations. Not recommended on laptops — heat and battery impact are severe. Verify the active plan with powercfg /getactivescheme after changes — OEM utilities sometimes revert Windows selection at reboot.