How to Create and Understand a Windows Battery Report

If you have Windows 8 (or you are using the preview version of Windows 10) on a laptop, you have a great new feature to help you monitor the health of your battery.  To create a battery report, open a command prompt window (search for "cmd") and type the following:

powercfg /batteryreport

Then, you can view the report at C:\Users\[Your User Name]\battery report.htm.  The file will open in your browser.

There will be a large amount of information here, and much of it will not directly relate to the health of your battery.  However, the numbers you need to look for are the "Design Capacity" and "Full Charge Capacity".

The Design Capacity is the charging capacity your battery was designed to hold.  However, after normal use, your battery will not reach its original capacity.  The Full Charge Capacity tells how much charge your battery can currently hold on a full charge.  Comparing these two numbers can tell you how much of your charging capacity your battery has lost.

You can also check the "Battery Life Estimates" section.  This shows you the estimated usage time remaining for your computer, but it shows the numbers for both your battery's current state and the original design state.  Using this chart can help you see how much longer a brand new battery would last on your computer's current configuration.

If either of these show a drastic difference, it might be time to replace your battery.