What do you use the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) in your laptop for? If you’re like most folks who bought a new laptop in the last couple of years, the answer is “not much.” The NPU is supposed to be used for local “AI” processing tasks… but since most people just use cloud-powered AI tools instead, it kind of seems like an electronic appendix—an appendix that might be costing you battery life on your laptop. Thankfully, that might be fixed with the latest Windows update. According to the patch notes for Windows 11 update KB5074109 (for 25H2 and 24H2), there was an “issue” with NPUs remaining active while laptops were idling, causing notable battery drain. It’s been fixed as of yesterday for Patch Tuesday, at least as far as Microsoft reckons. Other updates include the usual smaller bug fixes and updated drivers, new Secure Boot certificates, and an updated version of the WinSqlite3.dll file. You can see the full list over on Microsoft’s support page , and the new version should automatically download via Windows Update for most users.