Windows 11 is getting colorful new battery icons that are easier to understand at a glanceWindows 11 is getting colorful new battery icons that are easier to understand at a glance / It will be easier to see if your laptops battery is full and charging, or about to die and needs to be plugged in.By Andrew Liszewski, a senior reporter who's been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. Jan 24, 2025, 8:46 PM UTCShare this storyThe battery icon in Windows 11 is getting a colorful update. Image: MicrosoftMicrosoft is releasing a newWindows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating systems battery icon possibly sparing you the realization that youve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before its far too late.Windows battery icon, which has traditionally been black, is being updated with three colors designed to communicate battery status of your PC with just a quick glance, the company writes today on its Windows Blog. A green icon will indicate your computer is charging and in a good state, but will turn yellow when your battery has dropped below 20 percent charge and has entered energy saving mode. A red icon indicates you have a critically low battery and will need to plug in your computer as soon as possible before it dies.The new colored battery icons will appear on the taskbars system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in the general Windows Settings. Microsoft says theyll also eventually be used on the Lock screen, but that functionality is coming in a future build.Todays preview release includes two additional improvements to the battery icon. Microsoft has simplified overlays, such as the lightning bolt charging icon, so that they wont block the icons progress bar, and added the ability to show the batterys charge percentage next to the icon in the system tray. It can be enabled by going to Settings > Power & battery and turning on the new Battery Percentage setting.Microsoft says this is a highly requested feature by Insiders and customers and it should be a welcome upgrade over the battery icon Windows currently uses that provides minimal information and a vague representation of a batterys remaining charge.The colors should make it immediately obvious that a laptop has started charging when plugged in, and its a lot harder to ignore (or forget about) a near-dead battery when its bright red with a single digit charge percentage right next to it.The battery icon updates should already be available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who have opted to get the latest updates as soon as theyre available. Itll take longer to reach general release and might even get tweaks before it reaches other early adopters:Microsoft says the experience isnt available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.Most PopularMost Popular