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Is there a utility for windows 7 which will give me the time remaining until my laptop battery is fully charged. GNOME power manager has this functionality, So i was wondering if there is a counterpart for windows 7

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There are lots of utilities that claim to do that.

BatteryBar is the one I've using lately, and I'm very happy with it!

It uses what they call "Statistical Time Prediction". This is how it looks like when the battery is charging:

alt text

When charging, the percentage bar is shown in blue to indicate charging, and the estimated time to full charge is shown. The bar turns black and shows "On A/C" when fully charged.

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  • +1: I use Battery Bar as well, and it it seems pretty accurate. For computers which don't provide the time estimate to Windows (as it's hardware-dependent), it's a great little tool.
    – nhinkle
    Dec 3, 2010 at 1:01
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Basically, the OS shows all the information available to it. The "time Left to Charge" parameter is dependent on the hardware you're using and its manufacturer. If your laptop's manufacturer provides a power driver, I suggest installing it.

Case in point: I have 2 laptops, a Lenovo T400 and a Dell Mini 9. Both have Windows 7 installed. On the Dell, all I can see is "xx% remaining". On the T400 I also get time left to charge, and i can actually configure (through the Lenovo Power Manager applet) what will be shown when the laptop is charging and when.

I recommend visiting the manufacturer's site and looking for the appropriate driver.

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  • +1, excellent point that Windows does display this info when it's available. Unfortunately, the trend these days seems to be toward saving money by not reporting this useful information, even with power drivers installed. Unfortunately, in those situations, the only solution is to use 3rd party software to make an estimate.
    – nhinkle
    Dec 3, 2010 at 1:03

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