Can I Use Task Scheduler to Monitor My Computer’s Battery?

If you like to keep a close eye on your laptop’s battery charge level, then you may be looking for a built-in way to help monitor it while you are busy working. Is there one or do you need a custom solution? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has the answer to a battery monitoring reader’s question.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader MiHa wants to know how to create a task in Task Scheduler for battery level changes on his laptop:

I need to create a task in Task Scheduler based on battery level changes. For example, say my laptop’s battery drops from 67 percent to 66 percent charge remaining. How can I run a task based on this event? Does Windows log this at all? I was unable to find information on this anywhere.

How do you create a task in Task Scheduler for battery level changes?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor DavidPostill has the answer for us:

I Need to Create a Task in Task Scheduler Based on Battery Level Changes

Windows does not log this kind of information/details as events. You can, however, use something like the batch file below and create a custom event.

Battery.cmd

This batch file monitors the current battery percentage charge and creates a user defined event if the charge drops below a user defined threshold value.

Notes:

• The eventcreate command works on Windows XP up to and including Windows 10. It requires administrator privileges to work.
• Set _threshold as required.
• If the battery falls below this value, an event with ID 999 will be generated in the APPLICATION event log with the description “Battery charge has dropped”.
• Modify the eventcreate command as required for your situation.
• Modify the timeout delay as required for your situation.

Example Output

My battery currently has a charge of 81 percent. I set the threshold to 82 percent. Here is what happens when I run Battery.cmd:

And here is the new entry in the Event Log:

EventCreate Syntax

Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD Command Line – An excellent reference for all things Windows command line related.
• eventcreate – Create a custom event in the Windows Event Viewer.
• schtasks – Create or edit a scheduled job/task. The job can be created on a local or remote computer.
• wmic – Windows Management Instrumentation Command.

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