Global USB power controls

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Seems like I am constantly having to go to Device Manager and turn off Power Management for the various USB devices.

Can’t there be a Global On/Off switch for Power Management? If there is, I ain’t found it yet.

Chuck Billow

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I spend while a bit of time trying to find such a setting or how to change Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power so it’s “unchecked” by default.

I discovered there’s no global setting or way to do that, but did find the following powershell command that disables it.

Set-CimInstance -Query 'SELECT * FROM MSPower_DeviceEnable WHERE InstanceName LIKE "USB\\%"' -Namespace root/WMI -Property @{Enable = $false}

Notes:

• It only works for USB devices that allow Windows power management (not all do) that have been recognized by Windows (i.e. it’s been used at least once!)

• If, after running the command, you use a new USB device that allows power management it’ll default to Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.

• Windows feature updates (i.e. Windows 10 19H2 ⇒ 20H2, 20H2 ⇒ 22H2, Windows 10 ⇒ Windows 11 ) will reset USB power management back to its default value. So far, at least on my PC’s, no monthly update has done that!

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If your default High performance power plan has the USB power management option disabled, which is the default for many systems; then these command will help.

Open an Admin Command console
Enter the following command at the prompt and press the Enter key

powercfg -LIST

(note the space after powercfg)
The console will display the Power schemes for the device. The one with the * is the current power scheme being used.
One scheme will have (High performance) after its GUID (long line of letters and numbers).
Highlight the High performance GUID and copy it.
Most likely the GUID for the High performance is
8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
which is the default for most Windows 10 High performance plans, but I’m not sure about Windows 11.
At the prompt enter the following command replacing GUID with the GUID you copied above.

powercfg -setactive GUID

(To enter the above: type powercfg, enter one space, type -setactive, enter one space, right click to paste the GUID you just copied, and press the Enter key)
It will appear that nothing happened, but if you run the -LIST command you will see that the High performance is active.

Once you know the GUID for your system then you can place that command in a .bat file and have Task Scheduler run it on a regular basis.

BTW:  To check those advanced Power Options quickly:
Copy the below and paste into a Run box.

control.exe powercfg.cpl,,3

HTH, Dana:))

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Thanks again, Dana

Chuck Billow

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