Hi, I am developing an application and need to register for a low-battery event in Windows. I have reviewed the PowerSettingGUIDs documentation and found a value named GUID_POWER_SAVING_STATUS . Reference: https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/windows/win32/power/power-setting-guids However, this value is also set to true when the user manually turns on battery saver. What is the recommended approach for checking low battery events?

Hello, Welcome to Microsoft Q&A! You could try to use GetSystemPowerStatus function to retrieve the current power status of the computer. In particular, the application should check the BatteryFlag, BatteryLifeTime, and BatteryLifePercent members of the SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS structure for any changes. PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE event can occur when battery life drops to less than 5 minutes, or when the percentage of battery life drops below 10 percent, or if the battery life changes by 3 percent. For more details you could refer to the Doc: System Power Status Events Thank you. Jeanine If the answer is the right solution, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment". Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

What is the recommended approach for checking low battery events in Windows?

Accepted answer

Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 9,431 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-29T07:38:00.92+00:00

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!

You could try to use GetSystemPowerStatus function to retrieve the current power status of the computer. In particular, the application should check the BatteryFlag, BatteryLifeTime, and BatteryLifePercent members of the SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS structure for any changes. PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE eventcan occur when battery life drops to less than 5 minutes, or when the percentage of battery life drops below 10 percent, or if the battery life changes by 3 percent.

For more details you could refer to the Doc: System Power Status Events

Thank you.

Jeanine

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Rohan Pande 375 Reputation points

2024-05-29T07:41:16.94+00:00

Thanks @Jeanine Zhang-MSFT . Even I just found few mins back checking it out.

Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 9,431 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-29T08:11:36.95+00:00

If you want to check if system is in Power saving mode, you could try to use RegisterPowerSettingNotification with GUID_POWER_SAVING_STATUS.

According to the Doc:Power Setting GUIDs

GUID_POWER_SAVING_STATUS:The Data member is a DWORD that indicates battery saver state:

0x0 - Battery saver is off. 0x1 - Battery saver is on. Save energy where possible.

When you turn on battery saver, the value is 0x1(true). As far as I'm concerned, it is correct.

Rohan Pande 375 Reputation points

2024-05-29T08:20:17.2266667+00:00

But this GUID_POWER_SAVING_STATUS would be turned on if the user manually turns on Battery Saver. For say if battery is more than 60 and user turns on the battery saver. Still we would get this event. I don't think it gives the correct information.

Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 9,431 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-29T08:29:01.9866667+00:00

GUID_POWER_SAVING_STATUS indicates whether the system is in battery saver mode or not, regardless of how much battery power it has. If you want to get the current power status of the computer, I suggest you could use GetSystemPowerStatus (follow my first reply).

Rohan Pande 375 Reputation points

2024-05-29T10:18:34.3333333+00:00

Using the PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE seems a better option. And works fine.

Rohan Pande 375 Reputation points

2024-05-29T10:47:14.3633333+00:00

@Jeanine Zhang-MSFT one doubt I forgot this what should be the equivalent of PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE for Windows Service?

Jeanine Zhang-MSFT 9,431 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-05-30T02:42:05.7233333+00:00

As far as I'm concerned, you could receive PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE for Windows service.

When a service uses SERVICE_ACCEPT_POWEREVENT, the service is notified when the computer's power status has changed. This enables the system to send SERVICE_CONTROL_POWEREVENT notifications to the service. If dwControl is SERVICE_CONTROL_POWEREVENT, this parameter can be one of the values specified in the wParam parameter (PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE) of the WM_POWERBROADCAST message.

Refer to the Doc: LPHANDLER_FUNCTION_EX callback function

Rohan Pande 375 Reputation points

2024-05-30T04:22:46.9666667+00:00

Thanks!!
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What is the recommended approach for checking low battery events in Windows?

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