The laptop I use for work has Windows Professional on it. How do I check to see how much time is remaining ont he battery?

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Originally posted by Beckyddd:
The laptop I use for work has Windows Professional on it. How do I check to see how much time is remaining on the battery?

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I did a check for this and found only a handful of PDAs had an indicator for battery life
Friend of mine runs his laptop(also has XP Pro) with the mains adaptor always "on" giving the battery a rest. But he says the casing gets rather warm if used this way . Has a low rated power supply which has to work very Hard

When mine is not plugged in and is running on battery, there is a battery symbol in the righthand corner near the clock. If I take the mouse and point to the battery symbol and hover over it, it will tell how many minutes are left.

Heres a good way to set an alarm up also view the condition of the charge:
click Start>Help and Support in the search box
paste this in "battery condition laptop"
only 1 result there is a live link on the article to take you to the correct folder
However I cannot see an alarm tab(as per the text) can set the timers here to give an audible warning (can swap it in the sound setup to something different?)
Check the UPS tab (Uninterruptible Power Supply)(top section) I think there is an indicator in here if it's running on batteries? It's "Greyed out" if running on the domestic supply
Tip: Right click on the Power Options folder to create a shortcut then drag it onto the Start button and release and you have a new Power Options icon in the Start Menu top Left section under your name

Forgot to add I'm on XPpro as well
(Out of edit time on previous post)

There should be a little battery icon on the taskbar that you click on.

Electric:

I have Win 98 2nd Edition on one of my computers & there is NO battery Icon in its Taskbar.

I have Win XP Home Addition on my other computer & there is NO battery Icon in its Taskbar.

What Operating System (O.S.) do you have? You should mention this when you refer people to the Taskbar.

You should also mention what kind of a computer you have, i.e. Desktop or Laptop.

I am assuming that this Icon is only on Laptops.

Don

Or, we could make this simple...

Click on:

Start
Control Panel
Performance and Maintenance
Power Options

You should now be presented with the "Power Options Properties" window.

Ensure that your "Power scheme" is set to "Portable/Laptop".

Now, click on the "Advanced" tab. Check the box that says "Always show icon on the taskbar". Click Apply.

Voila, now you have an icon in your system tray that will show you the status of your battery power.

ChristF:

When referring to the Control Panel in Win XP, please indicate what style of the Control Panel you are referring to.

Your answer on 10/11/2004 @ 10:53 PM referrs to the Performance & Maintenance item. That only appears in the Category Style.

NOTE: Their are two styles available:

The Category Style & the Classicle Stlye.

Some people may have their computer setup on the Classicle Style, others may have it setup in the Category Style. You must mention this in your answer, otherwise some people may think you have given them the wrong information.

Don

You're correct, but it's in logical thinking that a person who's not aware of the "Power Options Properties" screen, is not familiar enough with their system to run in Classic Style.

Only speculation, however.