Fixing the CsEnabled option and Power Plans

One of the last Windows updates (August cumulative update)¹ brought not only bug fixes and improvements, but also some unwanted changes. Users complain that Power Plans settings are missing now, as well as the CsEnabled registry key. This issue is pretty unpleasant for both PC and laptop users.

What are Power Plans and CsEnabled?

Power Plans are the embedded tool that allows users to manage the computer’s performance and behaviour in certain cases. In the tool which you can find in the Control Panel, you can create settings presets for different situations. For example, you may allow your machine to run at peak performance, as well as minimize the power consumption by setting the possible peak performance to minimal. This feature is very useful for laptops: their users can forcibly increase their battery life by setting up the power saving plan. By default, Windows uses the “balanced” plan, which is almost ideal when you aren’t using your system in unusual circumstances. CsEnabled is a registry key that manages the correct interpretation of the plans you have created by the system. Disabling this key means making all Power Plans uneffective – the system will get back to the default “balanced” plan.

With Power Plans, you can create a separate plan for each situation. Do you need to have peak performance of your laptop/desktop? Set up the GPU usage to maximum, increase the default brightness and disable the auto switching into Sleep mode. Want to extend your battery life? Just set the GPU usage to minimum, tell the system to turn off your display in several minutes and go into sleep mode after a short time. This tool, of course, is not ideal, but still gives you a lot of options to set up. And it is a pity to lose this ability, as it happened after Windows update in August.

How to fix the missing CsEnabled and Power Plans?

Fortunately, Windows functionality allows the users to fix the system in case when CsEnabled and Power Plans are missing. For this action, you need to use Command Prompt. Open Search and type “Command Prompt” in the search bar. Choose the “Run as Administrator” option for this program.

Then, in the Command Prompt, type the following commands (each one separately):

powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

fix CsEnabled - run commands command prompt

Reboot your PC. These commands reactivate the Power Plans and turn on the CsEnabled key. If it is not effective, try the other way – by forcibly opening the Power Plans window in the Control Panel. Press Win+R combination, and then type “powercfg.cpl” in the appeared window. You will see the Power Plans window, where you can try to create the plan you want once again. Creating it will likely trigger the enabling of CsEnabled key.

Pay attention to this guide: Windows 10 issues – and how to resolve them.

Troubleshoot the Power management

The embedded Windows Troubleshooting module can help you to fix the Power Plans and CsEnabled. Open Settings → Update & Security → Troubleshoot². In this menu, choose “Additional troubleshooting”.

You will see the list of different areas of troubleshooting, where you need to choose the “Power” option. The troubleshooting will last for about 5 minutes, and you need to specify some parameters that will appear in the dialogue box in the process.

When the process is over, try to open the Power Plans windows in the Control Panel as usual.

Consider reading: How to Create a System Restore Point in Windows 10.

Brendan Smith

IT Security Expert

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