How to Delete a Power Plan in Windows 10
A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how computers use and conserve power. A power plan is also known as a power scheme. You can create custom power plans that are optimized for specific computers.
By default, Windows 10 includes three built-in power plans: Balanced, Power Saver, and High Performance. You can customize these existing plans for your systems, create new plans that are based on the existing plans, or create a new power plan from scratch.
If you created power plans that you no longer use or need, you can delete them.
This tutorial will show you how to delete a power plan on your Windows 10 PC.
While any user can delete a custom power plan, you must be signed in as an administrator to be able delete any of the built-in Balanced, Power Saver, or High Performance power plans.
After you delete a plan, you can't restore it unless you had previously exported the power plan to be able import it back when you like.
Contents
- Option One: To Delete a Custom Power Plan in Power Options
- Option Two: To Delete a Power Plan in Command Prompt
If you want to restore a power plan deleted using this option, you can use option 1 or 2 here.
1 Do step 2, step 3, step 4, or step 5 below for how you would like to open Power Options.
2 Click/tap on the Power icon in the notification area, click/tap on Power & sleep settings, click/tap on the Additional power settings link in Settings, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)
3 Right click or press and hold on the Power icon in the notification area, click/tap on Power options, and go to step 6 below. (see screenshot below)
4 Open the Control Panel (icons view), click/tap on the Power Options icon, and go to step 6 below.
5 Open the Win+X Quick Link menu, click/tap on Power Options, and go to step 6 below.
6 If the custom power plan you want to delete is currently selected as your active plan, then you will need to select (dot) a different plan to be your active plan first. (see screenshot below)
7 Click/tap on the Change plan settings link to the right of the custom power plan you wanted to delete. (see screenshot below)
8 Click/tap on the Delete this plan link. (see screenshot below)
9 Click/tap on OK to confirm. (see screenshot below)
10 The custom power plan has now been deleted from the PC. (see screenshot below)
If you want to restore a power plan deleted using this option, you can use option 2 here.
1 If you are deleting a custom power plan, then open a command prompt and go to step 3 below.
2 If you are deleting a built-in Balanced, Power Saver, or High Performance power plan, then open an elevated command prompt and go to step 3 below.
3 Copy and paste thepowercfg /list
command below into the command prompt, and press Enter. This will give you a list of all existing power plans on the PC along with their GUID. Make note of the GUID of the power plan (ex: "My Custom Plan 1") you want to delete. (see screenshot below)
4 If the power plan you want to delete is currently set as your active plan, then you will need to set another power plan as your active plan first. (see screenshot below)
An asterisk * to the right of the power plan in step 3 above will indicate your current active plan.
5 Type the command below into the command prompt, and press Enter to delete the power plan.(see screenshot below)
powercfg -delete GUID
Substitute GUID in the command above with the actual GUID of the power plan in step 3 above you want to delete.
For example:
(Balanced)
powercfg -delete 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
(High performance)
powercfg -delete 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
(Power saver)
powercfg -delete a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a
(Ultimate Performance)
powercfg -delete e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61
6 When finished, you can close the command prompt if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
Related Tutorials
- How to See Your Current Active Power Plan Scheme in Windows 10
- How to Choose a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Create a Custom Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Rename a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Export and Import a Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Reset and Restore Power Plans to Default Settings in Windows 10
- How to Add or Remove Power Options Context Menu in Windows 10
- How to Specify a Default Active Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Add or Remove Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10
- How to Restore Missing Default Power Plans in Windows 10