{"id":6309,"date":"2025-01-25T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T00:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/25\/windows-11-is-getting-colorful-new-battery-icons-that-are-easier-to-understand-at-a-glance\/"},"modified":"2025-01-25T00:01:06","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T00:01:06","slug":"windows-11-is-getting-colorful-new-battery-icons-that-are-easier-to-understand-at-a-glance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/25\/windows-11-is-getting-colorful-new-battery-icons-that-are-easier-to-understand-at-a-glance\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 11 is getting colorful new battery icons that are easier to understand at a glance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nThe battery icon in Windows 11 is getting a colorful update.<\/em> | Image: Microsoft<\/p>\n

Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system\u2019s battery icon \u2013 possibly sparing you the realization that you\u2019ve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before it\u2019s far too late. <\/p>\n

Windows\u2019 battery icon, which has traditionally been black, is being updated with three colors \u201cdesigned to communicate battery status of your PC with just a quick glance,\u201d the company writes today on its Windows Blog<\/a>. A green icon will indicate your computer is charging and \u201cin a good state,\u201d but will turn yellow when your battery has dropped below 20 percent charge and has entered energy saving mode. A red icon indicates you have a \u201ccritically low battery\u201d and will need to plug in your computer as soon as possible before it dies.<\/p>\n

The new colored battery icons will appear on the taskbar\u2019s system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in the general Windows Settings. Microsoft says they\u2019ll also eventually be used on the Lock screen, but that functionality is coming in a future build.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s preview release includes two additional improvements to the battery icon. Microsoft has simplified overlays, such as the lightning bolt charging icon, so that they won\u2019t block the icon\u2019s progress bar, and added the ability to show the battery\u2019s charge percentage next to the icon in the system tray. It can be enabled by going to Settings > Power & battery and turning on the new \u201cBattery Percentage\u201d setting.<\/p>\n

Microsoft says this is a \u201chighly requested feature by Insiders and customers\u201d and it should be a welcome upgrade over the battery icon Windows currently uses that provides minimal information and a vague representation of a battery\u2019s remaining charge.The colors should make it immediately obvious that a laptop has started charging when plugged in, and it\u2019s a lot harder to ignore (or forget about) a near-dead battery when it\u2019s bright red with a single digit charge percentage right next to it.<\/p>\n

The battery icon updates should already be available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who have opted to get the latest updates as soon as they\u2019re available. It\u2019ll take longer to reach general release and might even get tweaks before it reaches other early adopters:Microsoft says the \u201cexperience isn\u2019t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The battery icon in Windows 11 is getting a colorful update. | Image: Microsoft Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system\u2019s battery icon \u2013 possibly sparing you the realization that you\u2019ve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finavestra.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}