Save battery power with a dark theme

Black is best if you want to get the most out of a laptop battery 

While browsing tips from Microsoft, I came across an unusual one for extending the life of a laptop’s battery. Go dark. Apparently, the darker the screen the longer the battery lasts. I don’t mean the obvious method of turning down the screen brightness –I mean using dark Windows themes. 

This will work in Windows 7 with slightly different menu options but here’s what Microsoft recommends in Windows 10.

1. Open the Settings app and click Personalisation, then Themes. 
2. Select the darkest theme available. 
3. Then select Background on the left, set the background to ‘Solid colour’ 
4. and choose black Some apps also have dark and light themes, such as Mail. 
5. Click the gear icon, click Personalisation, 
6. select the dark theme and also set the background to black. Every little helps, as the saying goes.