10.20. Power Options The Power Options program manages the power consumption of your computer. That's a big deal when you're operating a laptop on battery power, of course, but it's also important if you'd like to save money (and the environment) by cutting down on the juice consumed by your desktop PC. The options available in this program depend on your PC's particular features. Figure 10-9 displays the Power Options Properties dialog box for a typical laptop computer. Figure 10-9. The Power Options program is a shape-shifter, meaning the tabs and controls available on each one vary from one PC to the next . Some of these tabs appear if you have a laptop, so you can conserve battery power, for example. 
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The Power Schemes tab lets you select, change, or create power schemes. A power scheme defines which components of your PC shut down since you last used your keyboard, mouse, or processor.
Tip: You might want to set up your power scheme so that the PC goes into Stand By mode after, say, ten minutes, and then hibernates after 30. That way, if you're only away from your desk for a minute, you can get back to work immediatelybut if you get called away longer, or even overnight, everything that was open on the screen is safeand you're not using electricity while you're away.
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The Alarms and Power Meter Tabs are for laptops only. Here, you can specify whether and how you want to be warned when you are low on battery power. -
The Advanced Tab includes an option to show an icon in the notification area of the taskbar when your laptop is running on battery power. Another option lets you password-protect your computer when it goes into Standby mode. -
If you have a Hibernate tab , you can use it to set up the hibernation feature (see Section 2.5). Turning on "Enable hibernation" lets you specify the duration of idle time before your PC hibernates automatically. -
The UPS tab has nothing to do with the United Parcel Service, even if that's how your PC was delivered. It refers instead to an uninterruptible power supplya box (about $120) capable of generating a few minutes of battery power in the event of a blackout . This short reprieve provides just enough time for you to save your documents before the lights go out. The truth is that this tab is designed to accommodate older UPS devices. Newer devices work with the two tabsAlarms and Power Meterthat usually show up only on laptops. After all, these dialog boxes are designed to let you monitor and configure battery powerand in effect, your desktop PC is now battery- powered . |
