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How to Export and Import a Power Plan in Windows 10

If you are customizing power plans included in Windows 10, it can be useful to export them to a file. Using that file, you'll be able to restore your power plan settings quickly after reinstalling the OS, or deploy it on multiple PCs. Here is how it can be done.

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By default, Windows 10 includes power plans like High Performance, Balanced, Power Saver, etc. These plans are designed to quickly let you switch a group of hardware and system power settings (like display, sleep, etc). Your PC can have additional power plans defined by its vendor. These power settings affect how long your battery lasts and how much power your PC consumes. It is possible to customize these power plan settings using advanced power options.

Power Plan Drop Down List

Windows 10 comes with a new UI again to change the operating system's power related options. The classic Control Panel is losing its features and probably will be replaced by the Settings app. The Settings app has already got many settings which were exclusively available in the Control Panel. The battery notification area icon in the Windows 10 system tray was also replaced with a new Modern UI. If you want to export your power plans quickly, there is no GUI way yet. So instead, you should use a console tool, powercfg.exe.

The powercfg.exe console utility exists in Windows since Windows XP. Using the options provided by that app it is possible to manage various power settings of the operating system. It can be used to export your power plan options to a file.

To export a power plan in Windows 10, do the following.

  1. Open an elevated command prompt.
  2. Type the following command to list all the available power plans: powercfg.exe /L.Windows 10 List Power Plans
  3. You can see that every power scheme in Windows has its own GUID. Note the GUID of the power plan you want to export.
  4. Execute the following command: powercfg -export "%UserProfile%\Desktop\PowerPlan.pow" GUID. Replace the GUID portion with the actual GUID value. Also, you can change the page to the backup file (*.pow).Windows 10 Export Power Plan

You are done. The sample command can look as follows.

powercfg -export "C:\data\High Peformance.pow" 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

Using the command above, you will export the High Peformance power plan to the file C:\data\High Peformance.pow. Now, let's see how to import the power plan you have exported earlier.

Import a Power Plan in Windows 10

  1. Open an elevated command prompt.
  2. Type the following command: powercfg -import "The full path to your .pow file".
  3. Provide the correct path to your *.pow file. You will get something like this:Windows 10 Import Power Plan
  4. The power plan is now imported and has its own GUID.

Now, you can list your power plans with the powercfg /L command.

Windows 10 List Power Plan 2

To activate the imported power plan, execute the following command:

powercfg -setactive GUID

Of course, you can switch the power plan using the GUI.

That's it.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

3 thoughts on “How to Export and Import a Power Plan in Windows 10”

  1. I have found this article searching the usage of powercfg.exe command because I needed to remember the export/import method. In other websites people didn’t mention the -setactive switch so many thanks!

  2. Thanks for the guide!!! It helped me to ask other person to export their power plans for a Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. Like you said, is important to put the whole full path. Even if you are already in the same folder than the pow file, will say that file not found :D

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