How to create a custom power plan in Windows 8 / Windows 8.1

One of the biggest complaints I hear from customers is how their computers go into sleep mode at the most inconvenient times. It happens mostly with laptop computers that are stationary and are using the ac power charger. The best way to deal with this issue is to change the power options inside of Windows. Here is how to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / Windows 8.1.

Right out of the box, Windows does a pretty good job of matching its' power options to the hardware inside of your computer. But for some of us, those settings won't work. I don't like my system to go to sleep or hibernate. One of the biggest problems I have encountered is having my computer go to sleep as I'm charging my smartphone via USB port. When the system goes to sleep, so does the USB port. I have disabled hibernation entirely on my system. I have the display turn off after a certain amount of time.

How to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / 8.1

1. Go to the Control Panel and left-click on Hardware and Sound.

2. Left-click on Power Options.

3. In the left-side column, select Create a power plan.

4. Select an existing plan to start with; give it a name and left-click on Next.

5. Make any changes to you may want for the display and when the computer goes to sleep, then left-click on Create.

6. Now you should see your power plan set as default. To change the advanced power settings, left-click on the Change plan settings on the right side of your power plan name.

7. Left-click on Change advanced power settings.

8. On the Advanced settings dialog box that appears, left-click on Change settings that are currently unavailable. Now you can modify every aspect of the power settings for your computer.