BatteryBar 3.6.5

Overview

BatteryBar is a very small and handy application that helps laptop users by enhancing the standard Windows battery utility, improving your battery’s status display with more information and visual effects. It is updated regularly to fix any existing bugs in the current versions.

Installation

During installation you will be asked to select which feature you want to install. You can either pick the recommended normal toolbar or the floating toolbar (with the option to automatically launch on system startup), and then choose to include additional themes for the program and language translations. To enable it after the setup finishes, you have to enable the BatteryBar toolbar from the toolbars menu in Windows Taskbar. It works only with Windows XP, Vista or 7.

Interface

There isn’t much to say about its interface; it is only a battery icon in the taskbar showing the time remaining or a percentage of how much power is left, alternatively changing when you click on the icon. If you hover over it a small report about your battery is displayed. When it is charging the color of the icon turns to blue and how much time is left before it is fully charged is shown.

Pros

A unique feature is its ability to keep historical data on your battery so that it can provide a better estimation on how much time is left. It is also a nice addition to the taskbar menu, especially for users who cannot use their charger often. In BatteryBar Pro all the preferences and features are unlocked, allowing you to customize for a more suitable use.

Cons

Windows already has its own utility for the same purpose; so BatteryBar will consume extra resources only to provide more accurate indications about the time left before the batteries are done. Depending on your laptop this might not be a deal that you can benefit from.

In the past it used to have many bugs, but most of them have been fixed in the recent versions and although it is not a program that has a lot of space to grow, its developers made sure that you can customize every part of it.

Alternatives

There are many applications like this one which do exactly the same job, like BatteryCare. It has exactly the same functions and a wider variety of features, supporting more operating systems. Test them both and see which one works best for you.

Conclusion

While it’s good to know a few more details about your battery, it is nothing special that you should necessarily have in your software installed list. In substance laptop users have very little to gain from it, apart from making the Windows environment look a bit more appealing.