Windows 11 finally has a battery percentage indicator

Unlike most other operating systems, whether on smartphones or desktops, Windows 11 doesn't have a proper native battery percentage indicator on the taskbar. If you want to know exactly how much battery you have left, the only way to get that information is to hover your cursor over the battery indicator or use a third-party app like Battery Flyout. Fortunately, Microsoft has finally addressed this long-standing issue.

The latest Windows 11 Dev build brings some big new features to PC Copilot+, along with some updates to the system's battery life indicator. In addition to the redesigned interface, Windows 11 will now display a real-time battery percentage in the notification area, right next to the battery icon, for the first time.

Of course, some people might want to keep the notification tray area minimalist, 'clean' and without any extra indicators, so Microsoft has also 'generously' provided the ability to turn the battery percentage display on or off. When enabled, this new option will be located under System > Power > Battery Percentage .

Currently, the battery percentage indicator feature has not been officially announced by Microsoft, the company's software engineers are busy perfecting the new version. However, if you want to experience it early, you can activate the feature with the help of the ViVeTool application. Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Make sure you're on build 26120.2992. You can check the build version in Settings > System > About > OS build .

Step 2: Download ViveTool from GitHub and extract the files to any convenient place.

Step 3: Launch Command Prompt as Administrator.

Step 4: Navigate to the folder containing the ViveTool files using the CD command. For example, if you placed ViveTool in C:Vive, type CD C:Vive.

Step 5: Type vivetool /enable /id:48822452,48433719 and press Enter.

Step 6: Restart your computer.

Now you can go to Settings > Power and enable the battery percentage indicator.

David Pac

Update 20 January 2025