Recipe 6.11. Creating Power Schemes

Problem

You want to create different power schemes for your laptop for example, one when it's plugged in at home, and another for maximum battery life when you're on an airplane on a cross-country trip.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

Choose Control Panel Performance and Maintenance Power Options. The Power Options Properties dialog box appears.

Figure 6-8. One good way to save your batteries: Create separate power schemes for your laptop
Click the Power Schemes tab. This tab handles the most important power functions. It lets you customize how your laptop uses power when plugged in and when it runs on batteries. So you might have the laptop never turn off the power to the LCD when it's plugged in, for example, and have it shut off the power to the LCD after 15 minutes when it runs on power.
To edit an existing scheme, choose your options from the drop-down boxes and click OK. For each scheme, you can choose options for when your laptop is running on batteries, and when it's plugged in. You choose when your system should turn off the monitor and hard disk after a specified time of inactivity. You also choose when your laptop should go into system standby. When your laptop goes into system standby, it goes into a very low power state, using only a few watts of power, just enough to retain the contents of RAM. Power is shut off to the hard drive, the LCD, the fan, and the CPU, so that it appears that the laptop is powered off. When you've made your choices, click OK.
To create an entirely new scheme, edit and existing scheme, choose Save As from the dialog box, and save it with a new name.
To use a power scheme, come back to the Power Options dialog box, choose the scheme you want to use from the drop-down list, and click OK.

Discussion

Your laptop will come configured with several different power schemes for example, one that preserves the maximum amount of battery life, one that is used when the laptop is plugged in, one when you're making presentations on the road and so on. You may not need to change the power settings, but it's a good idea to look at them, in case you want to.

Using system standby

If you choose to use system standby, you can configure how it works by clicking on the Advanced tab of the Power Options Properties dialog box. It lets you decide whether to put the system into standby if you close the lid of the laptop, what to do when you press the laptop's power button, and what to do when you press the laptop's sleep button. Additionally, if you're worried about security, it lets you require that a password be used in order to wake up the laptop from standby. And it can put an icon that reports about your power on the Taskbar.

Setting power alarms

You can have your laptop alert you or take an action when it has little power left. To set alerts, click on the Alarms tab, and customize the settings for when to alert you at what percent of battery life is left. There are two settings, one for lower battery alarm and one for a critical battery alarm. You can have the system alert you via text, via an audible alarm, or have it automatically go into standby or shut down. You can also have it automatically run a program when the batter reaches a certain level.