T 'n' T: May the Power Source Be With You Tips for Starting Quicker and Running Longer Gregg Keizer
Wed 1/23/02 -- I'm mad for power -- battery power on my laptop, power settings on my desktop.
Watching battery consumption is a fact of life when you're on the road with a notebook PC, but power management isn't just for portables. You can put Windows' power settings to work on your desktop, too, and save yourself some time and trouble while saving a few cents on your utility bill. In other words, while Tips 'n' Tricks is a column for power users, it's sometimes smart to use less power.
Shut down sans you. I've used this trick when I've begun a whopping download before going to bed, but don't want to leave my PC on until dawn. Instead, I tell Windows to shut itself off at a scheduled time. Note that you must have a newer ATX desktop motherboard and case for this to work; if your PC's power button doesn't stay in when you press it, but simply toggles the system on and off, you've got an ATX case and are good to go.
From the Start menu, choose Settings, then Control Panel, then Scheduled Tasks. Choose "Add Scheduled Task"; click Next, then Browse, then pick RUNDLL32.EXE (it's usually in the \Windows or \Windows\System32 folder, but on two of my XP systems, I had to search for it using RUNDLL*.* as a keyword). Under "Perform this task," choose "One time only." Pick a time and date, then check the box marked "Open advanced properties..." and click OK.
When the Properties dialog appears, type the following into the "Run:" box:
C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL32.EXE user.exe,exitWindows
(Again, you may need to modify the directory to reflect RUNDLL32.EXE's actual location on your PC.) Click OK. Now your PC will shut down gracefully, just as if you'd exited Windows yourself, at the designated time. You can run the task again by picking it from the Scheduled Tasks list and entering a new time and date.
I like to hibernate. It's most common among bears and laptops, but I use Hibernate -- as opposed to Shut Down (or, on Windows XP, Turn Off Computer) -- on my desktop PC all the time. Not only does a hibernating PC come alive and boot back into Windows faster (up to 45 percent faster on some of the systems I've tested), but you don't need to close programs or files before you quit. The feature saves an image of your Windows desktop and PC memory including all open applications and documents, then restores it when the power's turned back on.
First, check to see if your machine supports hibernation. Open Control Panel's Power Options module (called Power Management in Win 98) and look for a Hibernate tab. If it's not there, you're out of luck, but if it is, click the tab and then check "Enable hibernate support" (98/Me) or "Enable hibernation" (XP) -- you'll need as much free hard disk space as your PC has RAM to use the feature. Click OK.
When you select Shut Down (98/Me) or Turn Off (XP), you'll now have a Hibernate option -- although in Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional with Fast User Switching turned on, the Shut Down menu initially shows just the usual Stand By, Turn Off, and Restart options. Press and hold down the Shift key, however, and the Stand By button changes to Hibernate.
Case closed. You can switch most new notebooks equipped with Windows XP into a power-saving mode simply by closing the screen lid. It's the fastest way I know to put my portable to sleep. To try it, select Settings from the Start menu, then Control Panel, then Power Options.
Click the Advanced tab; in the "Power buttons" section at the bottom of the dialog, the first item should be "When I close the lid on my portable computer." You'll have a choice between Stand By and Hibernate (assuming you've enabled the latter; see above). I use Stand By, since my laptop is usually plugged into a wall socket, but if you're running on battery power, Hibernate (which completely shuts down the machine) is the better choice.
How much juice? Sure, Windows puts an icon in the Taskbar system tray that shows how much battery power's left in the old laptop. But have you seen it? The battery icon is as small as Osama's conscience, making it impossible to get an accurate reading. To learn how much energy is left, you must move your mouse pointer over the icon. What a pain!
I've tried several freeware and shareware battery monitors, but Battery Bar is my pick. This shareware utility -- 30 days after you first run it, the program starts nagging you to pay all of $10 -- is slicker than a Buffalo sidewalk in January. You can set it to stay visible, and its meter-like display is easy to read at a glance.
Best of all, Battery Bar shows both the percentage of battery power remaining and a surprisingly accurate estimate of how much time you can work before running out of juice.
Danger, Will Robinson, danger! The last thing you want to happen while you're working on a notebook PC is for the battery to give up the ghost while you're in the middle of an important document, before you get a chance to save your work. Ouch, that's gotta hurt!
A battery monitor helps, but I like to play it even safer and have Windows warn me that it's time to move my butt and save my files. To set the operating system's two alarms -- "low battery" and "critical battery"; think of them as DefCon 2 and DefCon 1 -- open Control Panel's Power Options or Power Management.
Click the Alarm tab and check both boxes. Using the sliders, set a trigger for each; I like 5 percent for low and 3 percent for critical. Next, click the Alarm Action button on each in turn and check the "Sound alarm" and "Display message" boxes.
In the Critical Battery Alarm Action dialog, I go one step further and check the "When the alarm goes off, the computer will:" box, selecting Hibernate from the list. (If Hibernate isn't available, skip this step; selecting "Stand by" is dumb because standby mode still uses some power, and when the battery's exhausted, any open work will be lost.)
