Freeware of the Moment- BatteryBar for Windows
When working mobile if you’re like me one of the most important pieces of information about your mobile computer is how much battery life you have remaining. I have long enjoyed a taskbar toolbar that Lenovo uses that puts an easy-to-see battery graphic that lets you keep tabs on the battery all the time.
Today’s Freeware of the Moment is a BatteryBar that does the same thing and works on any Windows PC. There is a full-featured free version that shows the remaining battery life in the taskbar and full information about the battery when you hover over the graphic. There is also a Pro version for $7.50 that supports some extra stuff like themes but I have not found a need to go that route.
BatteryBar is a great addition to the mobile computer toolkit and has worked flawlessly for me on Windows XP, Vista and even Windows 7. Give it a try and you’ll see how useful this simple little tool can be.
(via Download Squad)
is this the 1 that requires .Net Framework?
I believe it requires .Net 2.0 but everyone should have that by now. It will run automatically on Vista with later versions of .Net.
James, I can highly recommend BattStat as my freeware of the moment
http://users.rcn.com/tmtalpey/BattStat/
apparently it was Kevin’s freeware of the moment back in ‘07
http://jkontherun.com/2007/11/30/battstat-a-free/
I don’t know, it’s telling me 46 minutes, when Windows is telling me 6 hours and 30 minutes on my Dell XT with the battery slice attached. Maybe it’ll get more accurate though.
It looks like the Pro version is also necessary in order to switch power modes by a right click.
cool app
nice simple and clean.
I use the Lenovo meter on my Thinkpad. And, sadly, it usually has a difference in opinion with the Windows meter. So if I now add this one, will I get three different readings?
Joe, as you run your battery down it should become more precise.
BatteryBar uses historical data to determine life remaining on your battery. As you use your battery it will become more accurate; far more accurate than Windows (which just uses instantaneous data to determine time remaining).
Yeah, I think the problem though is that for now at least, maybe until a few cycles of running it down and then charging again, that it appears to be a little confused by having two batteries.
And I hope its a little off on my battery wear numbers. I’ve had my XT and the primary battery since October. It started at the time of my first post at 17% battery wear. I’ve had my battery slice since Friday, it started at 0% wear. As of right now, its now showing 22.8% battery wear for the primary battery and 3% for the battery slice.
Thanks for the pointer to this, very useful.
Really shows up how much power my old HP NC8000 uses compared to the 2133 – 17w compared to 1.2w.
It seems to have got the measure of the NC8000 straight away, hopefully it’ll settle down on the 2133 soon. The runtime is currently showing under an hour on the 2133 where Windows reckons 2 hours.
Most concerning is that it reckons the 2133 has 3% battery wear already, and it’s only a few months old. The two year old, cheap Chinese battery in the NC8000 is still at 0%.
Alan.