Developers and data engineers say their build or query is slow. Laptops are docked, on AC, with plenty of RAM. Should be fast.

Windows defaults to 'Balanced' even when docked on AC. For a workstation rarely on battery, switching to 'Best performance' (or the OEM equivalent like Lenovo Performance) is an easy win.

Try this first

1. 1Check the active plan: PowerShell 'powercfg /getactivescheme'. Or Settings, System, Power, Power mode.
2. 2Activate 'Ultimate Performance' if the plan exists: 'powercfg -setactive e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61'. On business laptops it's often hidden, so create it first: 'powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61'.
3. 3Otherwise set Settings, Power & battery, Power mode to 'Best performance' on AC. On battery 'Balanced' is fine.
4. 4For laptops with OEM tooling: Lenovo Vantage or Dell Power Manager have their own Performance mode. That sometimes gives more (CPU TDP-up, more aggressive fan curve) than the Windows toggle alone.
5. 5On data centers / server-class workstations: BIOS sometimes has 'OS Power Management' off and you need to pick 'Performance' over 'Balanced'. A few percent extra with no side effects if cooling can handle it.
6. 6Test with a repeatable benchmark (build time, query time) before and after, not by feel. Diff under 5 percent means the bottleneck is elsewhere.

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