PowerMode

This program allows you to adjust the Windows "power mode" from the command line, including setting AC (plugged in) and DC (battery) power modes independently.

Requirements

• Windows 10, version 1709 or later (AC/DC independent modes require Windows 11)
• .NET 8.0 runtime

Use

From the command line:

Command	Result
PowerMode.exe	Report the current effective, AC, and DC power modes
PowerMode.exe --json	Report the current effective mode as a single line of JSON (for scripts/automation)
PowerMode.exe <mode>	Set the power mode
PowerMode.exe /ac <mode>	Set the AC (plugged in) power mode
PowerMode.exe /dc <mode>	Set the DC (battery) power mode
PowerMode.exe /ac <mode> /dc <mode>	Set AC and DC power modes independently
PowerMode.exe <GUID>	Set the power mode to a custom GUID

Available modes: BestPowerEfficiency, Balanced, BestPerformance

The /ac and /dc flags can also be specified as --ac/--dc or -ac/-dc.

How it works

When called with a single mode argument, the program uses PowerSetActiveOverlayScheme from powrprof.dll to set the active power overlay scheme.

When called with /ac or /dc flags, the program uses the documented Windows APIs PowerSetUserConfiguredACPowerMode and PowerSetUserConfiguredDCPowerMode to set AC and DC power modes independently.

When called with no arguments, the program reports the effective power mode along with the user-configured AC and DC modes using PowerGetEffectiveOverlayScheme, PowerGetUserConfiguredACPowerMode, and PowerGetUserConfiguredDCPowerMode.

Adding --json (also -json or /json) to the report invocation emits a single line of machine-readable JSON for the currently-effective power mode instead of the human-readable lines, for use by scripts and automation:

{"name":"BestPerformance","guid":"ded574b5-45a0-4f42-8737-46345c09c238"}

name is the canonical mode token (BestPowerEfficiency, Balanced, BestPerformance, or Unknown); guid is the raw scheme GUID. The flag only affects the report (no-mode) invocation.

All API methods return zero on success and non-zero on failure.

Power mode GUIDs

Mode	GUID
Best Power Efficiency	961cc777-2547-4f9d-8174-7d86181b8a7a
Balanced	00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Best Performance	ded574b5-45a0-4f42-8737-46345c09c238

Building

Run build.bat to compile and produce a zip file for distribution. Requires the .NET 8.0 SDK.