Monitor battery charge with Win32 API

Question

I'm trying to write a small app that monitors how much power is left in a notebook battery and I'd like to know which Win32 function I could use to accomplish that.

Answer 1

For Vista and up you can use RegisterPowerSettingNotification

For earlier functions see the Power Management Functions in this section of the MSDN page "Power Management Functions: Windows Server 2003 and Earlier"

You can see example code of the Vista method on codeproject.

Answer 2

I recommend the use of the Win32 GetSystemPowerStatus function. A code snippet :

int getBatteryLevel()
{
    SYSTEM_POWER_STATUS status;
    GetSystemPowerStatus(&status);
    return status.BatteryLifePercent;
}

Answer 3

There is a very detailed article in the following link, as well as a n example project (tested working on Win8.1): http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/15829/Vista-Goodies-in-C-Monitoring-the-Computer-s-Power