If your laptop doesn’t last as long on a charge as it used to, Windows has a built-in way to tell you how healthy the battery really is. All it takes is a quick command.
Open the Start menu, search for Command Prompt, right-click it, and choose “Run as administrator.” Then type powercfg /batteryreport and hit Enter. Windows will generate a report in HTML format and save it in your user folder. Open that file in a browser, and you’ll see details like design capacity, full charge capacity, recent usage, and charge cycles. The key number to watch is full charge capacity – if it’s far lower than the design capacity, your battery may be on its way out.
The report also includes a section called Battery Capacity History, which shows how your battery’s maximum charge has changed over time. This makes it easier to spot trends rather than relying on a single day’s reading.
Some laptop makers offer their own tools too. Dell has Power Manager, Lenovo has Vantage, and HP laptops often include a battery check in the Support Assistant app. If you don’t see these on your system, you can usually find the same information in the BIOS or UEFI menu at startup.
For a quicker look without running reports, Windows 11’s Settings app has a battery usage page under System > Power & battery. It won’t give you health stats, but it does show which apps are draining the most power and how your battery is performing day to day.
To make your battery last longer, avoid letting it stay at 0% or 100% for long stretches, try to keep your laptop cool, and install updates that may include efficiency improvements. Over time, every battery loses capacity, but with these checks, you’ll know when it’s time to adjust habits – or start shopping for a replacement.