If you like to keep a close eye on your laptop’s battery charge level, then you may be looking for a built-in way to help monitor it while you are busy working. Is there one or do you need a custom solution? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a battery monitoring reader’s question.
Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.
The Question
SuperUser reader MiHa wants to know how to create a task in Task Scheduler for battery level changes on his laptop:
I need to create a task in Task Scheduler based on battery level changes. For example, say my laptop’s battery drops from 67 percent to 66 percent charge remaining. How can I run a task based on this event? Does Windows log this at all? I was unable to find information on this anywhere.
How do you create a task in Task Scheduler for battery level changes?
The Answer
SuperUser contributor DavidPostill has the answer for us:
I Need to Create a Task in Task Scheduler Based on Battery Level Changes
Windows does not log this kind of information/details as events. You can, however, use something like the batch file below and create a custom event.
Battery.cmd
This batch file monitors the current battery percentage charge and creates a user defined event if the charge drops below a user defined threshold value.
Notes:
- The eventcreate command works on Windows XP up to and including Windows 10. It requires administrator privileges to work.
- Set _threshold as required.
- If the battery falls below this value, an event with ID 999 will be generated in the APPLICATION event log with the description “Battery charge has dropped”.
- Modify the eventcreate command as required for your situation.
- Modify the timeout delay as required for your situation.
Example Output
My battery currently has a charge of 81 percent. I set the threshold to 82 percent. Here is what happens when I run Battery.cmd:
And here is the new entry in the Event Log:
EventCreate Syntax
Further Reading
- An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD Command Line – An excellent reference for all things Windows command line related.
- eventcreate – Create a custom event in the Windows Event Viewer.
- schtasks – Create or edit a scheduled job/task. The job can be created on a local or remote computer.
- wmic – Windows Management Instrumentation Command.
Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.
Image Credit: DavidPostill (SuperUser)
