Windows 11 is getting colorful new battery icons that are easier to understand at a glance

Microsoft is releasing a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build today with some welcome improvements to the operating system’s battery icon – possibly sparing you the realization that you’ve chosen a dead outlet, or improperly plugged in your power adapter, or let your battery drain too much, before it’s 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 taskbar’s system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in the general Windows Settings. Microsoft says they’ll also eventually be used on the Lock screen, but that functionality is coming in a future build.

Today’s preview release includes two additional improvements to the battery icon. Microsoft has simplified overlays, such as the lightning bolt charging icon, so that they won’t block the icon’s progress bar, and added the ability to show the battery’s 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 battery’s remaining charge.The colors should make it immediately obvious that a laptop has started charging when plugged in, and it’s a lot harder to ignore (or forget about) a near-dead battery when it’s 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 they’re available. It’ll take longer to reach general release and might even get tweaks before it reaches other early adopters:Microsoft says the “experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.”