How to disable Windows Hello to prevent excessive battery drain on Surface Book, Surface Pro 4

Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 have been available for purchase for a few days, but a number of users have found a bug that is causing excessive battery drain and heat during sleep mode. The problem seems to be as a result of a bug on Windows Hello and a number of users are reporting that disabling the feature slows down battery drain when in standby, therefore avoiding the device from warming up.

For those unfamiliar, Windows Hello, is a new feature in Windows 10 that allows users to sign into the operating system using biometric authentication. In the case of the Surface devices, which come equipped with an infrared camera, users can simply use facial recognition to sign into Windows 10.

The root of the problem seems to make sense, as Windows Hello didn’t become available until Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 went on sale, as such reviewers couldn’t pick up on the battery drain issue.

In addition, we have to keep in mind that the infrared camera and Windows Hello for Surface devices are still in the early days, as such we are expecting to see isolated incidents where facial recognition won’t work or other problems like battery drain and heating will affect some users, and some other users won’t find any issues.

However, if you’re experiencing this problem, you can temporarily disable Windows Hello on your Surface to try to improve battery life.

Disable Windows Hello

1. Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open Settings.

2. Click on Accounts.

3. Click on Sign-in options.

4. Under Windows Hello, click Remove.

   

Alternatively, you can put your computer into Hibernate mode to improve battery life.

If you don’t see the option available in the power menu do the following:

1. Use the Windows key + X to open the Power User menu and click Control Panel.

2. Click on Power Options.

3. Click on System Settings.

4. Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.

5. Under Shutdown settings check the Hibernate option.

   

6. Click Save changes.

You can also disable Wi-Fi when you put the computer to sleep:

1. Use the Windows key + X to open the Power User menu and click Control Panel.

2. Click on System.

3. Click Power & sleep.

4. Uncheck “On battery power, stay connected to Wi-Fi while asleep”.

   

Of course, you can save all your work and shut down your Surface Book or Surface Pro 4 to save the most power.

Microsoft has already rolled out two firmware updates since the launch of the new Surface devices, which address many of the key issues, but battery drain and heat while sleep isn’t one of the fixes. The company plans to soon release the Windows 10 Fall Update (Threshold 2), which will include a number of changes and improvements to make the operating system more stable, and we also hope a new firmware will roll out as well to permanently resolve all the major issues on Surface Book and Surface Pro 4.

Source Reddit via Windows Central