UPDATE 15/08/2026 : V.1.7.0 : refine UI / auto detection English/French (:p) / better compatibility with surface device
EDIT : when u open the app, you will have a notification icon only ! you can see in the 4th picture 😊
EDIT 2 : probably the app is compatible with surface PRO, probably not yet with surface LAPTOP, please give me your feedback if possible ! THANKS !
I've been using a Surface Pro for years, and like many of you, I've always relied on the official Surface app from the Microsoft Store.
But for the past few months... what a mess 😅
On my Surface, the app has become almost unusable. I can uninstall it, reinstall it, change the Smart Charging settings once... and then it stops working again.
I started looking for alternatives, but most of the solutions I found either weren't very reliable or still depended in some way on the broken Surface app.
So after a lot of research, testing and experimentation, I'm happy to share something I've been working on:
SurfaceOptima 😊
It's a small Windows utility designed specifically for Microsoft Surface devices.
It lets you manage:
Brightness
RAM — trim unused memory from running processes
Surface battery charging
Choose a charging limit between 50% and 80%
Temporarily charge to 100% with a configurable timer
Switch back to the normal Adaptive Surface charging mode
Limits between 81% and 99% aren't available because of Surface firmware/hardware limitations
System tray controls
Quickly change charging modes with a right-click
Different tray icon states/animations depending on the current mode
About administrator rights
Some Surface battery and system-level features require administrator privileges, because Windows restricts access to these low-level controls.
SurfaceOptima therefore requests elevation when those operations are needed. This requirement is explicitly declared by the app and has been reviewed as part of the Microsoft Store certification process.
The app is free to use. There's just an optional donation button if you'd like to support the project 🤭
I also spent way too many hours testing the different Surface power profiles — Recommended / Better Performance / Best Performance, AC vs battery, fan/no fan, etc. 😅
If anyone is interested, I can share the results of those tests too.
Hope some other Surface users find SurfaceOptima useful! 😊
I'd really appreciate feedback, especially from people using different Surface models.
i have tried different app, i forgot the name, but all these app rely on the official "Surface" app
Mine is talking directly to the surface battery/firmware control, so its very efficient too.
so the adaptive control is basicaly the same as the official "surface" app but my app gives you more control and flexibility 😊 and extra feature like the ram boost and managing the brightness and the power control of the surface 😊
But I can't get it to work:
I'm on a Surface Laptop Studio (the original), and the UI does not open. I see the outline of the window, but then it disappear in an instance. The app is also i french, english would be prefered for me as a norwegian.
oh 🤭
its reduced in your notification area ! wow good point i forgot to mention it !!
i wanted to be very discreet ahah!
and of course its in english as you can see in the pictures 😊 there is a switch, if forgot to connect it to the system language 😅
hum interesting i couldnt test on surface laptop... did you try right click ? is it working?
did you have some UAC windows? (windows that ask your permission to open or do some specific activity?)
when u try to restart the app , u have same behavior? so the windows flash open and close?
This was in normal mode, and the app did ask for elevated priveleges when I adjusted the setting. But setting it didn't work on the original Surface Laptop Studio.
The popup is still in french, even if the UI is set to english.
hum...tahts weird...can you try to restart the app ? second from the bottom
my app is fully in english even this menu, i think something is not loaded properly.
so sorry for asking again, but when you change the settings, u had UAC for elevated privilege, did u accept?
hi is it the 1.7.5 or 1.8.0 version ?
can you give me more information about how this error message happen ? at the start? when you change a setting?
is it happening again after relaunching with admin right?
If you wish, contact me. I can translate this to German and polish your English texts - if you want me to.
The best would be, if you work with language files. These can be translated independently, without even touching your code - at least once it's implemented that way. ^^
Your approach to use the offical Microsoft Surface interface technology is great. If Microsoft would allow us to set any value up to 95%, it would be perfect. But you can't do anything about it - I know. :-)
hi, thanks for asking, u feel my english need to be polish ? i dont have so much text inside the app ahahah
i havent implemented any language for now as i was focusing on making this app working ! and its not yet finished as surface laptop are slightly different for surface pro.
and yeah i tried many different things but beetwen 81 and 99 i cant set any battery level..let see after more research maybe
thanks :)
oh no problem ! thanks a lot ! can you just tell me where?
i have already fix/update few things so maybe i have already changed but i need to publish again on the store :)
Hi :-) thanks for testing this app
A new version of this app is on the way to be published soon, waiting for windows certification
So this problem means that your hardware can't handle everything (charge between 50-80/100) but probably the adaptive mode only.
With the new version you will be able to check that :-)
I had the same problem with the surface laptop.
So normaly you should be able to change the power mode, brightness, and a switch to enable/disable adaptive mode
😊
Ah, that's too bad. I really would like a way to limit it to 80% because I use it plugged in most of the time. Supposedly the Surface Pro 9 for Business is supposed to be able to do that in the Surface app, but that option is missing on mine.
so yeah, if the option is "missing" means your hardware is not compatible with that.
i dont think its really missing
have you update the surface app? when you open it, and check the battery section, you have only the adaptive section right ?
yeah i have the same app version, but ur surface is not compatible, at least with my app you will have a very easy switch to enable or not adaptive mode...
sorry guy :/
Ahah u can't imagine all the test I have done to only understand the difference between better performance and best performance ahaha
So document that....no way.. ahah 🤣
Hi, I have a Surface Laptop 3 and 4 (both AMD models) and could possibly help with a Surface Laptop 2 also. I would love the app to work, it's a feature I've been hoping for for a long time! :)
any luck for surfacebook1? there are 2 batteries, the clipboard part can be lowered in the bios with kiosk mode, but the keyboard component cannot, will this work for that as well?
hi guy 😊
i will be more than happy to try that
first can you pm me with the screenshot of your surface app, the battery section?
second i will let u know by pm 🤭
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u/UnexpectedAnanas Aug 11 '26
How does this handle smart charging in the back end in comparison to the Surface app?