How to Enable the Ultimate Performance Power Plan in Windows 10

To enable the Ultimate Performance power plan in Windows 10, open Command Prompt as an administrator, run the powercfg command below, and then select the new plan in Control Panel. The command adds the plan to Windows; you may still need to activate it afterward. The procedure takes a few minutes and uses built-in Windows tools.

What the Ultimate Performance plan does

Microsoft introduced Ultimate Performance for demanding workstation workloads. It builds on High Performance and is designed to reduce small delays caused by fine-grained power management. That does not guarantee faster results in every app, and it is not a dedicated gaming mode. The difference depends on your hardware and workload.

The plan can use more electricity than Balanced. Microsoft also noted when introducing it that the plan was unavailable on battery-powered systems. Laptop makers and Windows editions may further limit which plans appear, so availability is not guaranteed on every Windows 10 PC. If your device does not support it, use the power plan provided by its manufacturer.

Enable Ultimate Performance in Windows 10

1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator

Select Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt, and choose Run as administrator. Approve the User Account Control prompt if it appears. The elevated window should say “Administrator” in its title bar.

2. Add the power plan

In the administrator window, enter this command and press Enter:

powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61

The command duplicates the Ultimate Performance scheme. If it succeeds, Command Prompt returns a “Power Scheme GUID” for the new copy, often followed by its name. The GUID is generated for your PC, so it will differ from the example in the image. Keep the GUID handy if you need to activate the plan with a command later.

3. Open Power Options

Press Windows key + R, type powercfg.cpl, and press Enter. This opens the classic Control Panel Power Options page. You can also navigate through Control Panel > System and Security > Power Options.

4. Select Ultimate Performance

Choose Show additional plans or expand Additional plans, then select the radio button beside Ultimate Performance. Selecting it makes the plan active. Use the same page to switch back to Balanced when you want to reduce power use.

Confirm the active plan

Look for the selected radio button in Power Options. For a command-line check, open Command Prompt and run powercfg /getactivescheme. Windows prints the active scheme name and GUID. Microsoft documents /duplicatescheme for copying a scheme and /getactivescheme for checking which one is active.

If Ultimate Performance does not appear

• Check that the command succeeded. Run powercfg /list to see the schemes registered on the PC. If Ultimate Performance is not listed, reopen Command Prompt as an administrator and carefully re-enter the command, including all hyphens in the GUID.
• Activate it by GUID if Control Panel does not show it. Find the new scheme GUID in the command output or the powercfg /list results, then run powercfg /setactive <new-scheme-GUID>, replacing the placeholder with the GUID. Confirm with powercfg /getactivescheme.
• If Windows reports access denied, close the window and reopen Command Prompt using Run as administrator. If the command still fails or the plan is missing, your Windows edition, device firmware, or manufacturer power software may not expose this scheme. High Performance or the manufacturer-recommended plan is the safer supported choice.

Windows 10 support note: Microsoft ended standard support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Changing a power plan does not restore security updates; see Microsoft's current support information if you still use Windows 10.

Official references

• Microsoft Learn: Powercfg command-line options
• Windows Insider Blog: Ultimate Performance announcement
• Microsoft Support: Windows power modes and Windows 10 support status