The power settings under
Power Options in the Control Panel provide features that enable you to
adjust the performance of your system while conserving energy. To get to
the power options for your system, click the Start button and select
Control Panel. If the Control Panel opens in Category view, click the
System and Security link. Then click the Power Options icon. The Power
Options applet will open, shown in Figure 1. Click the down arrow beside Show Additional Plans to show the High Performance plan.
The Power Options
applet provides the basic configuration for the power options on your
system. The three plans listed, Balanced, Power Saver, and High
Performance, are the default power plans for the system. You're able to
alter the settings for the three default plans by either clicking the
Change Plan Settings link beside the plan or, for the selected plan,
clicking either Choose When to Turn Off the Display or Change When the
Computer Sleeps from the left column. Clicking any of these links brings
up the Edit Plan Settings dialog box shown in Figure 2.
Adjusting either of these
options will alter the default plan you have selected. Clicking the
Change Advanced Power Settings link brings up the Power Options dialog
box, which includes the Advanced Settings tab shown in Figure 3.
With these options,
you're able to drill down on individual options at a more granular
level. If you change something that you think you shouldn't have, you
can click the Restore Plan Defaults button to get back to where you
were. Note that notebook computers have additional power options not
typically available on desktops.
1. Create a power plan
If none of the default
options meet your needs and you'd like to build your own power plan,
click the third link on the left side of the Power Options applet,
Create a Power Plan. Clicking this link brings up the window shown in Figure 4.
To make it easier, Windows
lets you create your power plan from one of the three defaults. You're
also able to name the plan on this page. After you've set the name of
your plan, click Next. The next window allows you to set when you want
to turn off the display and when you want to put the computer to sleep.
After you've configured these
last two options, click the Create button. When you are back at the
Power Options applet, your plan should be first on the list and
selected.
2. System settings
Clicking the first two links
on the left side of the Power Options applet, either Require a Password
on Wakeup or Choose What the Power Button Does, takes you to the System
Settings page shown in Figure 5.
With older computers, when
you pressed the power button, the system would power off. With current
computers, the power buttons take on a different role. Under the first
heading in this window, Power Button Settings, you determine what
happens when the power button is pushed. You're given three options,
discussed here:
Sleep:
If you select this option, the data you are working on will be stored
in memory and to the hard drive. The system will run using very little
power until you press the keyboard or move the mouse. On a notebook
computer, when Windows notices that the system is running low on battery
power, Windows will start writing the information to the hard drive.
Upon restarting, the system will move all of the information from the
hard drive to memory, just as the system was left originally. Usually,
it takes 2 to 3 seconds to bring the computer back from Sleep. Sleep
mode is not limited to notebooks. Most newer desktop computers also
support it.
Hibernate:
Using this option will take all of the information you have in memory
and write it to the hard drive, then shut down the computer. Upon
resuming, your system understands that there is a file on the hard drive
that contains the picture of what was in memory, and the system copies
the information from the hard drive to memory. This is a snapshot of
what you had running when the system went into hibernation.
Shut Down:
This selection will shut down the computer without saving any of the
data you have in memory. Windows will prompt you to save your work
before you shut down. This method does a graceful shutdown of Windows.
After you've determined which option you want, click the Save Changes button.
On the System Settings window,
you're also able to set the password option for what happens when the
computer wakes up. As indicated by the text next to each of the options,
when your system wakes from Sleep, the user may be prompted for a
password. Obviously, the more secure option is to use a password.
However, if this is your home system and you are the only one with
physical access to the system, it's sufficient to pick the second
option.
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Windows 7 includes a
technology called ReadyDrive, which combines hard drives with flash
memory to help with performance and power consumption. When the hard
drive spins down to conserve battery life, some of the information can
still be accessed from the flash memory on the hard drive. The flash
memory consumes a fraction of the power compared to that of a typical
hard drive. The advantage of ReadyDrive for notebook PC users is that
Windows 7 can read data that is cached in the drive's flash memory
without spinning up the drive, conserving battery life and extending
drive life.
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NOTE
The settings described in
this section are the most common settings based on the hardware. For
instance, if you're using a laptop, you may have two additional or
different options on the left side of the Power Options window: Choose
What Closing the Lid Does and Choose What Power Buttons Do. These
options are specific to the system and offer additional options for
power management.
With
all of the power options available in Windows 7, you should be able to
conserve resources on your system while still making your system very
responsive. The power options will probably benefit a portable user more
so than a desktop user.
