Do you have a Vista Machine?

Vista machines work on the same principles as Windows XP machines. The Standby mode stores the desktop information in RAM and the Hibernate mode stores the desktop information on the hard drive. When you save this information to the hard drive, it provides safer long term solutions for data security and recoverability. However, you cannot quickly load your computer’s settings back up after a period of inactivity.

Power options in Windows Vista have been changed, reworded, and sorted a little differently compared with XP. When you visit the Control Panel (in Classic View) and double click power options, you’ll notice the change immediately. Windows Vista offers three different power plans. The plans sort as Recommended, Power Saver, and High Performance. Each plan can be edited by clicking the “Change plan settings” link. They are created with the best usability in mind. For the most part, a Vista notebook user would want to change power settings for different usability circumstances.

For the Vista notebook user who travels daily by train, a power setting that enables low battery usage would be ideal. This user would want to adjust the default plan to reflect a shorter amount of time between non-use and when the computer went into Standby. This may be a two minute period, or a five minute one, depending on the user’s preference.

Editing Power Options in Windows Vista 

1. Click the Start Menu and then click Control panel.  
2. In Classic View, double click Power Options.  
3. Under the Recommended setting (may say recommended by your computer manufacturer), select Change plan settings.
   
   

   

4. Reduce the time before the display turns off.
   
   

   

5. Reduce the time before the computer goes to sleep.
   
   

   

6. Save Changes.

The settings should be adjusted to your liking. Now, even with these new settings, your Vista notebook may be losing juice out of the battery faster than you can reduce your activity on the machine. For this reason, we need to reduce the load on the system processor to effectively reduce the power consumption of the notebook. In Vista there is an option available — turn off Windows Aero.

Windows Aero looks fancy and snazzy when you first start up Windows Vista. Over time, for many people, the Aero Glass and Aero Flip lose their appeal. When you need to get down working and not worrying about the frills, we suggest you turn off the Aero functionality on notebooks to give yourself longer battery life.

1. Right click the desktop and select Personalize.
2. Choose Window Color and Appearance.
    
3. Select the link at the bottom of the screen entitled Open classic appearance properties for more color options.
   
   

   

1. Turn off Windows Aero by choosing the Vista Basic appearance setting. This removes the window animations, Aero Glass, and everything else Aero related.
   
   
    

Now that you have the Aero theme changed to Vista basic, your notebook’s power consumption should be reduced.