Vista Power Management in Software

Generate Denso QR Bar Code in Software Vista Power Management

As mentioned at least a couple of times in this book, Vista has focused much of its reengineering efforts to make it a significantly better choice for laptop computers Putting the computer to Sleep rather than in Standby or Hibernate modes is just the tip of the iceberg, though There are several other improve-

ments in how Vista handles power options, and users now have much more control over what options are configured and when This power management capability extends to administrators as well, of course Not only can administrators specify power options on an individual computer basis as will be discussed in this section, but there are also several new Group Policy settings that can manage power options for entire groups of computers We ll touch on the Group Policy options in just a bit For now, we ll concentrate on the options that can be configured on an individual machine To get started, open the Power Options console from the Control Panel It can be found under the Hardware and Sound grouping, but the easiest way to locate this console is to simply type power at the Vista Start Menu The Power Options should appear at the top of the Programs list The three possible power plans, as shown next, represent a starting point for governing mobile computer power consumption, and other plans can be added and removed as needed:

Power Saver Uses processing power at as low a rate as possible in order to extend battery life as long as possible High Performance Maximizes computer performance without regard to battery life The computer should perform almost as speedily as it does when plugged in

Vista chooses the Balanced plan as the default As you can see in the illustration, some manufacturers will rename the Balanced power plan as part of their Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) setup In this case, the Balanced plan is called the Dell Recommended plan If you ve performed a clean install of Vista, your default power plan should be called Balanced

Another way to quickly access the Power Options console is to rightclick the battery icon in the System Tray and choose Power Options

Choosing one of these three preconfigured power plans is just the tip of the iceberg Each of these plans is comprised of numerous individual power behavior settings that can be adjusted to exactly your liking by following the Change Plan Settings link Or, you can create your own power plan from scratch The best way to proceed is to use one of the three preconfigured power plans as starting points To get started, follow these steps: 1 Open the Power Options console using the steps previously described On the left side of the console, click the Create A Power Plan link 2 In the Create A Power Plan dialog box, choose the template plan and give your new power plan a name Click Next 3 Now you need to configure these options for when the computer is running on battery and when it is plugged in:

Turn off the display Most power plans specify that the system turns off the display when on batteries sooner than when plugged in Put the computer to sleep The interval when the system automatically goes into Sleep mode Adjust screen brightness Dimming display brightness on battery power will conserve battery life

4 Click Create to save your new plan; you should now see the Power Options console once again 5 To really get into the inner workings of the plan, you ll want to click the Change Plan Settings link and then the Change Advanced Power Settings in the ensuing dialog box