How To Import And Export Power Plans In Windows 10

Windows 10 supports multiple power plans. You can switch to power plans from the battery slider or you can pick one from the Control Panel. Windows comes with a few default power plans but you always have the freedom to customize one of the presets, or to make your own power plan. Once you do make them, you might want to use them on more than one system. If that’s the case, making them again isn’t convenient. It’s easier to export power plans, and import them on your other systems.

SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial at the end of this article.

Power Plan GUID

Power plans have a user friendly name however your system identifies them with a GUID. It’s series of alphanumeric string that maps to a power plan. You can find the GUIDs of all power plans currently configured on your system by running the following command in Command Prompt.

Powercfg List

Export Power Plans

The GUID is what you need to export a power plan. The list of GUIDs is accompanied by the name of each plan so you can tell which GUID belongs to the plan you want to export. Copy it to your clipboard.

Next, pick where you want to export the plan to. The export command requires a location to export the file to. Once you have both items, enter the following command to export the power plan. Make sure you append “pow” at the end of the file name that you specify. Power plan files have the POW file extension and you will need to specify it when you’re exporting the power plan.

Syntax

Powercfg -Export Location and file name GUID

Example

Powercfg -Export "C:\Power Plan\Sleep Plan.pow" 63772157-d589-43cb-869e-f6b512bbcb3b

Import Power Plans

Now that you’ve exported the power plan, you can import it to other systems. Copy the POW file that you exported to the system you want to import the power plan to.

Run the following command to import the power plan.

Syntax

Powercfg –Import Location and file name

Example

Powercfg –Import "C:\Power Plan\Sleep Plan.pow"

Once you’ve imported the power plan, it will appear in Control Panel. Note that not all power plans appear in the battery slider so you’re likely only going to find the imported plan in Control Panel. Open File Explorer and enter the following in the location bar. This will open Power Options in Control Panel and the plan you imported will appear here. Select it.

Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options

We should mention that when you import a power plan, it is assigned a new GUID on the new system. The old GUID will not work if you try to use it again to export the plan from the current system. Get a fresh list of GUIDs on each system you export a power plan from.

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Fatima Wahab

Fatima has been writing for AddictiveTips for six years. She began as a junior writer and has been working as the Editor in Chief since 2014. Fatima gets an adrenaline rush from figuring out how technology works, and how to manipulate it. A well-designed app, something that solves a common everyday problem and looks

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