I Got Tired of Windows Power Modes, So I Wrote a Script Just for Myself

I did not set out to build a tool.

I was just annoyed.

Windows kept making decisions for me that did not match what I was doing. On battery, it felt slower than it needed to be. Plugged in, it sometimes acted like I was rendering a Pixar movie when I was just writing code. Power modes existed, technically, but they were scattered, buried, and easy to forget.

So I did what most developers do when friction sticks around too long.

I wrote a script.

This started as a personal fix, not a project

PowerTune was never meant to be public.

It was something I created for myself so I could switch power modes quickly without digging through settings or trusting whatever Windows thought was “balanced” that day. I wanted something predictable. Something fast. Something I could run and forget.

No UI. No installer. No background services.

Just a script that does exactly what I ask it to do.

And for a while, that was enough.

Then I realized I was not the only one fighting this

The more I used it, the more obvious something became.

This was not a “me” problem.

Anyone who uses a Windows laptop long enough ends up in the same place. You bounce between battery life and performance constantly, but the system treats power management like a one-size-fits-all decision. It works… until it does not.

I kept thinking about how many times I had said, “I will fix this later,” only to forget again.

PowerTune removed that mental overhead for me.

So I cleaned it up a bit.

And then I thought… maybe it could help someone else too.

What PowerTune actually does

At its core, PowerTune is very simple.

It lets you switch between predefined Windows power modes instantly. That is it.

You run the script, pick a mode, and Windows behaves accordingly. There are profiles for battery saving, balanced use, high performance, and maximum performance, plus a reset option if you want to go back to defaults.

No magic. No tricks.

Everything it does is transparent and script-based, which was important to me. I wanted to know exactly what was changing on my system.

Why I kept it minimal on purpose

I could have added a GUI.

I could have added more customization.

I could have turned it into a “proper app.”

I did not.

Because the whole point was speed and intention. I wanted something I could run in seconds, automate if needed, or ignore completely when I did not need it. The moment it becomes complex, it becomes another thing to manage.

This script respects my time.

That matters more than features.

Sharing it felt a little strange

There is a certain vulnerability in sharing something you built only for yourself.

It is not polished in the way commercial software is polished. It does not try to impress anyone. It exists because it solved a real annoyance in my daily workflow.

But that is also why I decided to share it.

If even one person runs it and thinks, “Oh… this is exactly what I needed,” then it did its job.

If you decide to use it

Use it as-is.

Modify it.

Fork it.

Or just read through it and build your own version that fits your workflow better.

That is the beauty of small tools like this. They do not ask for commitment. They just show up, do their job, and get out of the way.

Final thought

A lot of software tries to be important.

PowerTune does not.

It exists because Windows power management is more annoying than it needs to be, and writing a script was easier than continuing to tolerate that annoyance.

This started as something I made for myself.

If it ends up helping you too, that is a bonus I am genuinely happy about.