Windows 10: Power settings mysteriously changed.

Just had a windows update yesterday, not sure if the events are connected but turn off display went from my setting of 30 minutes to 10 minutes and sleep never went to 30 minutes. These I believe are the defaults.

Did this happen to anyone else after yesterdays update?

:)

 

Notification area settings mysteriously changed. How? Why?

Acelyn, thank you for the first part of your answer, acknowledging this may have been caused by the Microsoft account maintenance on March 7. I am disregarding the rest, as I don't think those steps are appropriate in this case, when three devices exhibited
the same behavior.

Further evidence to support the Microsoft account maintenance reason, I just started up a 4th Windows 10 PC that had not been turned on since before March 7. A minute after booting up, the screen went blank for a second, then returned with the incorrect
settings. I put the settings back as they were supposed to be and restarted. Hopefully that'll be the last of this issue.

 

Notification area settings mysteriously changed. How? Why?

Hi Barry,

It is possible that a minor glitch caused this issue or due to the maintenance of Microsoft Account yesterday.

For us to further isolate the issue, we suggest that you follow these steps and check if the same issue persists:

Method 1: Perform System File Checker (SFC) scan.



System File Checker is a utility in Windows that allows users to scan for corruptions in Windows system files and restore corrupted files. To perform the SFC Scan, you may refer to this
link.



Method 2: Clean boot.



A clean boot is performed to start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This will help to eliminate software conflicts that occur when you install a program. Please see this
link for the steps.

Let us know the result.

 

Hi, which update was that? It always helps to quote the number- people are on different builds getting different updates at different times.

Have a look in the News section where there is a thread per update.
(E.g. CTRL F or F3, search the page for part of your update number - one way to find a thread)

 

Cumulative Update KB4034674 Windows 10 v1703 Build 15063.540 is what was installed yesterday. Looking in the News section there is no mention of power settings. I also installed Avira Speedup wonder if that affected some settings, quickly uninstalled it as I learned it was mainly a startup optimizer and junk cleaner. Strange.

 

Hi Banger

I'm guessing it is either your previous Avira Speedup software app that changed your power settings or a software app such as 'System Mechanic' or 'Advanced System Care' if you have either of them installed.