- Introduction
- YouTube Video
- Connecting the UPS
- Checking the UPS has been detected
- Configuring
- What Happens When Mains Power is Lost
Introduction
Hi there. In this article, I'm going to guide you though how to setup a UPS on Windows 11. I'll be doing this with an APC UPS but the process will be similar for other UPS's, although some may require additional software to be installed. Please check with your UPS manufacturer if any is needed.
YouTube Video
If you would prefer to see a video of this article, there is a YouTube video available below:
Connecting the UPS
To set the UPS up with Windows 11, you need to connect up the signal cable to a USB port on your PC and the other end needs to go into the data port on the UPS.
Checking the UPS has been detected
Once it is connected, you'll see the battery indicator appear in the bottom left of the taskbar.
When you click on it, it shows the UPS's battery level in bottom left.
Click on that and it'll go to the Power & Battery settings.
You can see the power mode for the system is balanced by default.
Under battery usage, there is a graph that would show the usage over time. This one isn't populated on mine as my PChas not had the UPS connected before.
Close Settings and then open up control panel. Then, check that the battery is showing as a UPS, by opening Device Manager and then expanding Batteries. If it has "UPS" in the description, it's showing correctly. Close Device Manager.
Next, open up Power Options.
Configuring
First, click on Create a new power plan. I did try using the Balanced one but it wouldn't hibernate for some reason.
Select high performance and then give it a name. Leave everything as is and click create.
Once it's created, click on Change plan settings and then change advanced power settings.
Scroll to the bottom and expand Battery.
Expand low battery action. Both should be set to do nothing. Leave those as they are.
Low battery notification should be on.
Critical battery action will need to be set to hibernate or shutdown for battery and do nothing for plugged in.
Critical battery notifications should both be on.
Now, low battery level and critical battery level can be left as they are but I would recommend changing these to higher values. The reason is that 5% might not offer enough runtime to hibernate or shutdown the system gracefully. What I would go for is 40-50% for low battery level.
When that point is reached, You'll get a notification to say "the battery is low and you should plug in your PC to mains power". The verbiage could do with some changes as this is a UPS, rather than a laptop battery.
For critical battery level, go for 20 - 30%. When this is reached, the PC will hibernate or shutdown, depending on what was set. In my case, I set it to hibernate.
When that is done, click Ok and you're done. There are nothing further you need to do.
What Happens When Mains Power is Lost
To give you an example of what will happen, I'll adjust the low battery level to 64% and the critical battery level to 60. Don't change this.
I'll open the battery settings up again. You'll see the icon at the side of the percentage remaining indicates it's on mains power.
Now, I'll turn the UPS off at the wall. Most UPS's will produce an audible alarm.
The icon should change to just a battery.
There is the low power warning.
It dropped to 57% and then went into hibernate.
Before you turn your PC back on, make sure that mains power is back on first. When I logged back in, the Notepad document I had open before was still there, indicating the PC hibernated correctly.
I hope that was of use to you. Thanks for reading and have a nice day!
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