How to Restore Missing Default Power Plans in Windows 10
A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your computer uses power. Power plans can help you save energy, maximize system performance, or achieve a balance between the two.
All users (standard and administrator) will be able to make changes to any power plan settings.
Changes made to a power plan will affect all users that have chosen the same power plan as their default active power scheme.
Windows 10 includes the following default power plans:
- Balanced - Offers full performance when you need it and saves power when you don't. This is the best power plan for most people.
- Power saver - Saves power by reducing PC performance and screen brightness. If you're using a laptop, this plan can help you get the most from a single battery charge.
- High performance - Maximizes screen brightness and might increase PC performance. This plan uses a lot more energy, so your laptop battery won't last as long between charges.
- Ultimate Performance - Only available by default in the Windows 10 Pro for Workstations edition starting with Windows 10 build 17101. Provides ultimate performance on higher end PCs. It builds on the current High-Performance policy, and goes a step further to eliminate micro-latencies associated with fine grained power management techniques. As the power scheme is geared towards reducing micro-latencies it may directly impact hardware; and consume more power than the default balanced plan. The Ultimate Performance power policy is currently not available on battery powered systems.
This tutorial will show you how to restore the Balanced, High performance, Power saver, or Ultimate Performance default power plan if missing in Windows 10.
If your computer supports Modern Standby, you will only have the Balanced power plan available by default, and will not be able to add any other default power plan than Balanced. You will be able to change the power mode level to what you want though.
You will still be able to create and add a custom power plan with Modern Standby.
Contents
- Option One: Restore Missing Default Power Plan by using Command
- Option Two: Restore Missing Default Power Plan by Importing POW file
EXAMPLE: Windows 10 default power plans
1 Open a command prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below for the missing power plan you want to restore into the command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)
(Power saver)
powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a
(Balanced)
powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
(High Performance)
powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
(Ultimate Performance - Windows 10 build 17101 and later)
powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
3 You can now close the command prompt if you like.
You must be signed in as an administrator to do this option. This option can be handy if Option One will not work for you.
1 Click/tap on the download button below to download the Default_Power_Plans.zip file.
2 Save the Default_Power_Plans.zip file to your desktop.
3. Unblock the Default_Power_Plans.zip file.
4 Open the Default_Power_Plans.zip file, and extract (drag and drop) the Balanced.pow, High performance.pow, Power saver.pow, or Ultimate Performance.pow file to your desktop for the missing power plan you want to restore. (see screenshot below)
5 Open an elevated command prompt.
6 Type the command below for the power plan you want into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter to import the power plan (.pow file). (see screenshot below)
(Balanced)
powercfg -import "Full path of .pow file" 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
OR
(Power saver)
powercfg -import "Full path of .pow file" 40a2b0b8-9231-4fda-a3db-5c3de1e45d71
OR
(High performance)
powercfg -import "Full path of .pow file" 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
OR
(Ultimate Performance)
powercfg -import "Full path of .pow file" e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
Substitute Full path of .pow file in the command above with the actual full path of the .pow file (ex: "Ultimate Performance.pow") file from step 4.
For example:powercfg -import "C:\Users\Brink\Desktop\Ultimate Performance.pow"
7 When finished, you can close the elevated command prompt if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
Related Tutorials
- How to Choose a Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10
- How to Specify a Default Active Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to See Your Current Active Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10
- How to Create a Custom Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Export and Import a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Delete a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Change Power Mode Level in Windows 10
- How to Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
- How to Reset and Restore Power Plans to Default Settings in Windows 10
- How to Rename a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to View All Power Plan Settings in a Text File in Windows