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On Windows 8.1 on a Microsoft Surface, normally I have Balanced, Power saver, and maybe High Performance. Today I only have Balanced ... where could the others have gone?

When I go to Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options it only lists Balanced in the 'Selected plan' section; the others are nowhere to be seen.

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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EDIT: I'm sorry, you were asking for the default policies back. I proposed the solution I used for our custom policies. For the default simply execute: 

:H:\>powercfg /LIST

Existing Power Schemes (* Active)
-----------------------------------
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e  (Balanced) *
Power Scheme GUID: 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c  (High performance)
Power Scheme GUID: a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a  (Power saver)

I'll leave my original answer below to be complete.

They should be here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Controls Folder\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies

If they are missing and you have another machine you can list all GUIDs on the pc with the functioning policies:

powercfg /LIST

then export all GUIDs (this is an example, make sure to adjust to whatever GUID is shown and file you want):

powercfg -EXPORT C:\Temp\test.pow 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

Then copy the .pow files and execute this on your machine with issues:

powercfg /IMPORT C:\test.pow
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  • powercfg -restoredefaultschemes seems to have had no effect. Beneath HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies there are 6 keys, numbered 0 through 5. No guids in sight...
    – Rory
    May 22, 2015 at 16:24
  • Can you provide an example of the GUIDs you're referring to?
    – Rory
    May 26, 2015 at 22:38
  • I added the output to my answer and if you want you can find the .pow on my OneDrive: onedrive.live.com/… Rename from .txt to .pow, execute the last command in my answer and it should add the balanced power plan back. Disclaimer: always be cautious with files received from the internet, I can't guarantee this will work, take a backup before you try etc.
    – HoD
    May 27, 2015 at 7:16
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The default power plans have changed periodically over the last few years. It's possible that they were hidden or removed by them a recent update.

You may not be able to restore them directly, however, you can create your own power plans, ones that do pretty much the same thing.

To do so, right-click the power icon in the taskbar and then choose Power Options. Next, click on the arrow on the right side of the Hide additional plans line. If your missing plan is listed, you can select it, change plan settings, and so on.

If the plan was removed (as it sounds like it might've been), you can create a power plan by clicking the corresponding command in the left margin. If you do create a new plan, do try to give it a name other than the original ones. The process that removed the earlier ones may not be robust enough to distinguish between custom plans or older plans.

Hope this helps...

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  • Do the power plans do anything with the CPU or disk power user, or are they just about screen brightness and going to sleep?
    – Rory
    May 22, 2015 at 16:26
  • 1
    Power plans control much more than screen brightness and sleepiness. :-) If you go into Power Options in Windows 8.1 and then click a "Change plan settings" link to the right of one of your existing plans, you'll notice a "Change advanced settings" link near the middle of the screen. This opens an Advance settings property sheet that contains a number of different things you can change. To learn more, see thewindowsclub.com/configure-power-plan-windows-8
    – Lance Leonard
    May 22, 2015 at 17:24
  • Thanks @LanceLeonard, but I see there's no settings for CPU or disk activity ... does that mean they never affect that or are there some special settings only available to the built-in ones that affect that? e.g. I'd expect the Power Saver plan to restrain CPU in order to restrain power usage, but that doesn't seem to be an option when I'm creating a power plan.
    – Rory
    May 26, 2015 at 22:37
  • Quick question: Are you using a Surface Pro or a Surface RT?
    – Lance Leonard
    May 26, 2015 at 22:50
  • Surface Pro 3...
    – Rory
    May 27, 2015 at 8:28

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