Windows 10: Display custom Battery Icons on Windows devices

Battery Icons is a freeware for Microsoft Windows devices that displays a battery level indicator in the system tray area when executed. It is designed to replace the default battery indicator of the Windows operating system and to improve the readability of the status. The application was released as part of Donation Coder's annual NANY event.

The default battery icon on Windows devices provides only a rough estimate of battery power when you look at it. While you can hover the mouse cursor over the icon to display the actual power state, e.g. 38% remaining, some users might want an icon that reveals the status without having to lift a finger.

The screenshot below shows the default Windows battery icon and next to it the icon of the Battery Icons application.



Battery Icons is a simple freeware program that displays the status of the battery on Windows devices in a different icon. The application introduces two features that set it apart from the Windows version:

• It uses four different icons that users may customize to display the battery levels 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%.
• It displays a tool-tip when the battery level reaches one of the thresholds.

All you have to do is download the application from the author's website, extract the zip file it is provided as, and run the application.



The default icons don't look that good on the Windows taskbar, but you can replace the icons with other .ico files. Check a site like Find Icons to find battery icons, download them, and replace the default icons the program uses in the settings with the newly downloaded ones.

New icons become visible immediately after you select "ok" in the settings.



You may also change the icons directly in the program's ini file if you prefer that; could be an faster option.

You may want to hide the default Windows icon if you plan to use Battery Icons instead.

The app uses a bit of memory, about 10 Megabytes, but virtually no CPU.

Closing Words


Battery Icons is a simple but useful program for Windows to replace the default battery status indicator on the taskbar with one supporting levels.

The program lacks customization options; I'd like to see an option to disable the tooltips, add more battery levels, and change the default battery levels as well. An option to turn the icon into a number to indicate the load right away would be useful as well.

Now You: What is your take on the application?

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Change Device Icons with Custom Icons - Devices & Printers

Hi All,

Wondering if you can offer me some pointers here......

Brink put together an excellent tutorial on this process for Windows 7 (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...tom-icons.html) and with some adaption for the revisions to the Metadata Authoring Wizard contained in the Windows 10 Drivers Kit I have already customised my device icons and even provided some (limited) assistance to others grappling with the task (iPhone shown as Unspecified in Devices and Printers).

All that is, with a couple of pesky exceptions namely the main system icon which remains set at it's somewhat bland generic Windows 10 image and I am at a loss as to how to change it to a more representative custom image....

Secondly, the (ugly) generic icon representing the WiFi Gigabit Router (always shown under the custom name assigned to my network) is inaccessible ("greyed out") such that selecting properties (right click) and bring up the properties dialogue offers the usual "General", "Hardware" and "UPnP" tabs but the "Properties" button on the "Hardware" tab is "greyed out" and thus non of the required Hardware ID's can be accessed.

Returning to the "System" icon customisation I am able to access the Properties and from the Hardware Tab to select "ACPI x64-based PC" from a very comprehensive "System Devices" list and then to select the "Properties" button and from the resulting "Details" tab selecting the "Hardware ID" simply reveals just "acpiapic"

Using the Metadata Authoring Wizard and selecting "Device Only Metadata" for the "Package Type" (step 1) and then "Computer*Biggrinesktop" or "Computer:Tower" from the tree in "Device Categories" (step 2) produces the following error (see screen shot)...





choosing "Yes" reverts the selection in (step 1) to "Internal Devices" whilst selecting "No" simply deselects the chosen "Device Categories" (step 2).

Proceeding as an "Internal Device" to "Locales" (step 3) and selecting "English (United Kingdom) en-GB" from the tree allows proceeding to "Device Info" (step 4) into which under "Model Name" the following text string representing my Motherboard was inserted "Asus P6T7 WS SuperComputer 64 Bit Windows PC" along with the corresponding details for "Manufacturer", "Model Number", "Description 1" & "Description 2" together with a representative icon. See screenshot.





Proceeding to "Hardware Info" (step 5) and opting to add a Hardware ID offers the following choices which with the assistance of CPU-Z I completed with the representative entries on the following screenshot before generating the error message in the subsequent screenshot referring to two GUID's hardware for which I have been unable to identify in either the Windows directory or the Registry....





see here





Cancelling the error and proceeding to "App Info" (step 6) which I left unfilled (default?) then to "Windows Info" (step 7) in which all I did was to check the box for the item "Show the device when it is disconnected" moving finally to "Finish" which resulted in the error message displayed in the final screenshot below





For ease of reading the full text reads:

The following errors must be fixed before your metadata package can be created:


Hardware info


: Each OEM hardware ID must have associated SMBIOS information to successfully submit to the Windows Hardware Dev Center Dashboard. If you have a device manifest file (devicemanifest-ms), you should edit it instead of editing the device metadata file (devicemetadata-ms). Otherwise, you can enter the SMBIOS information on the Hardware Info page.

Hopefully, someone can identify exactly what I have omitted....

One final thought, is customising this item likely to have any influence on the "Digital Entitlement" held by MS's servers for automatic activation/re-activation?

All advice much appreciated as ever....

Thanks in advance,

 

Futuremark Releases Powermark Battery Life Test for Windows 7 Devices

Futuremark, the world leader in performance benchmarking software and services, today expanded its product line with Powermark a new battery life and power consumption test for Windows 7 notebooks, laptops, tablets and other battery powered devices. Powermark is a professional grade benchmark designed for industrial testing of battery powered Windows 7 devices by OEMs, corporations and governments. It includes a convenient set of standard tests based on productivity and entertainment use-case scenarios, as well as allowing custom settings for bespoke testing requirements. Powermark Professional Edition commercial licenses start at $200 for 10 activations. For further details and to purchase Powermark please visit this page.

Jukka Mäkinen, CEO of Futuremark said, "Battery life is critical to delivering a positive user experience. Powermark helps PC industry OEMs and their suppliers strike a balance between performance and power consumption by providing a consistent, accurate and reliable testing and measurement tool created with Futuremark’s deep experience in quality benchmarking software."

Powermark - battery life test for Windows 7 devices from Futuremark:

• Accurately measure the battery life of Windows 7 devices.
• Choose convenient scenario tests or create your own custom settings.
• Designed for professional test lab environments.
• Licensed for commercial use.

Powermark is only available for business customers at this time.

 

Missing laptop battery icon in Windows

Just to clarify, have you also tried the steps below?

• Type Device Manager in Cortana's search field.
• Click the drop down arrow for Batteries.
• Try to disable/re-enable AC Adapter and ACPI Compliant Method Battery.

Check if the battery icon will re-appear after doing that step.