BatteryCare

BatteryCare is a simple, easy-to-use laptop battery monitoring software that monitors the battery's discharge cycles and helps increase its autonomy and improve its lifespan.

Some days our laptop batteries seem to last for hours...and other days they seem to drain away.

The built-in battery manager in Windows reports quite inaccurately on battery life. What's more, changing Windows' power settings can make it better for watching DVDs or surfing the web for a few minutes.

Monitoring and maximizing the life of your laptop battery is easy with free software called BatteryCare. The software shrinks down in the system tray like the Windows Battery Monitor, but displays more information about the battery when you mouse over it.

It'll tell you battery usage, CPU and hard drive temperatures, and your current power settings.

If you click the icon in the system tray, you are presented with a menu of options to change your power settings. This means you only need one click to change your battery saving settings.

Clicking the BatteryCare icon in the system tray with your mouse will bring up another menu that allows you to change the power plan, adjust settings, donate to the software provider or display the program's menu. Click the Show button at the top of the menu and you can see more information about the battery that you may have seen before.

The first interface that appears is basic information, which can display the current usage and health status of the battery. Here you can see how much life your battery has left.

Click Details in the upper right corner of the window, and the pop-up menu will display battery-related information, such as rated capacity, currently used capacity and consumption level. This can help you figure out if you need to buy a new battery.

Click Settings in the upper left corner of the window to display battery-related configurations and update BatteryCare options.

Most of the general settings have been set by myself, such as starting with the system, and also adding a setting to disable the Aero theme of the Vista system (Windows 7 system also has it) and suspend the service. This can extend battery life by at least a few minutes.

BatteryCare is better than the built-in Windows battery monitoring function. It provides more information about the battery over time, such as statistics on charge cycles and how much charge the battery currently has. If you use your laptop's battery every day, this software is worth downloading.