If your Windows 11 laptop battery is draining too quickly, or if your cooling fans are constantly spinning at maximum speed, a background application might be consuming too many system resources. To help you manage power-hungry software, Microsoft introduced “Efficiency Mode” directly into the Windows 11 Task Manager. This feature allows you to manually throttle the CPU usage of specific applications, forcing them to use less power and run more quietly in the background.
What Does Efficiency Mode Do?
When you place an application into Efficiency Mode, Windows immediately lowers the base priority of the process. This tells the CPU to focus its processing power on the apps you are actively using, rather than the app you just throttled. Furthermore, it deploys a feature called “EcoQoS” which ensures the throttled app only runs on the most power-efficient processor cores (if your CPU supports hybrid architecture). The result is less heat, a quieter system, and longer battery life.
How to Turn on Efficiency Mode
You can manage this setting on an app-by-app basis using the Task Manager.
- Right-click anywhere on the empty space of your Windows 11 taskbar and select Task Manager. (Alternatively, press Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
- If the Task Manager opens in a compact view, click More details at the bottom.
- Ensure you are on the Processes tab (the square icon on the left navigation bar).
- Look through the list of running apps and find the specific application that is using a high percentage of your CPU.
- Click once on the application’s name to highlight it.
- At the very top right of the Task Manager window, click the Efficiency mode button. (It looks like two small green leaves).
- A confirmation dialogue box will appear warning you that throttling the app might cause instability. Click Turn on Efficiency mode to confirm.
How to Tell if It Is Working
Once activated, you will see a small green leaf icon appear next to the application’s name in the status column of the Task Manager. This confirms the app is now being actively managed and throttled by Windows.
Important Note: You cannot enable Efficiency Mode for core Windows system processes. If the option is greyed out, it means Windows has determined that throttling that specific process would cause the entire operating system to crash.
How to Turn It Off
If you notice that the throttled app is running too slowly, or if it stops syncing data in the background (such as a cloud storage app), you can easily revert the change. Simply open the Task Manager, click on the app with the green leaf icon, and click the Efficiency mode button at the top again to instantly remove the restriction.