.POW File Extension

Windows 10 comes with pre-configured "Balanced," "High performance," and "Power saver" plans. You can also create a custom power plan in Windows 10 by modifying the power settings for your device.

How do I create a custom power plan?

To configure a power plan with custom settings in Windows 10, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings by clicking the Start menu and selecting the gear icon
2. Click System
3. Select Power & sleep
4. Click Additional power settings on the right pane of the window
5. Select "Create a power plan" on the left pane of the new window
6. Choose the plan, name it, and then click Next
7. Select the settings for the plan, and click Create

How do I export a POW file?

Windows provides the Powercfg.exe tool to manage power plans. To export a power plan as a POW file with Powercfg in Windows 10, follow these steps:

1. Open the Start menu and search for "Command Prompt" or "cmd"
2. Right-click the Command Prompt app and select "Run as administrator"
3. Type powercfg -list and press the Enter key
4. Copy the GUID (5 groups of characters separated by dashes). For example, f349f321-8108-47d9-9c27-0786618f478c
5. Choose the location you want to export the POW file to and paste the power plan GUID (instead of the example GUID used here) in the following command: powercfg -export path\to\folder\[name for your plan].pow [GUID]. An example of an export command that exports the power plan as an Example.pow file on the Desktop with the example GUID:

   C:\Users\SharpenedProductions\Desktop\Example.pow f349f321-8108-47d9-9c27-0786618f478c

6. You can now navigate to the location you exported the POW file to in order to access the file

How do I import a POW file?

To import a power plan POW file with Powercfg in Windows 10, follow these steps:

1. Open the Start menu and search for "Command Prompt" or "cmd"
2. Right-click the Command Prompt app and select "Run as administrator"
3. Type powercfg -list and press the Enter key
4. Type the following command to import the POW file: powercfg -import path\to\folder\[name for your plan].pow. An example command to import the Example.pow file from the desktop:

   powercfg -import C:\Users\SharpenedProductions\Desktop\Example.pow

5. Type powercfg -list and press the Enter key to retrieve the GUID of the power plan
6. Then, type powercfg -setactive [GUID] and press the Enter key to activate the power plan. An example command using the f349f321-8108-47d9-9c27-0786618f478c GUID looks like this:

   powercfg -setactive f349f321-8108-47d9-9c27-0786618f478c

7. Type powercfg -list and press the Enter key again to verify that the POW file is imported and the power plan is active

NOTE: Power plans were introduced with the release of Windows XP SP2 in 2004.