HardDisk

This category contains the Turn Off Hard Disk After setting. The HardDisk is one of the majority power-hungry components of a Laptop, so turning off the HardDisk saves a worthwhile amount of energy. After the HardDisk has spun down, it will take a few seconds to spin back up when you start using the Laptop again.

Wireless Adapter Settings

This category contains the Power Saving Mode setting for your Laptop’s wireless adapter. You can choose Maximum Performance, Low Power Saving, Medium Power Saving, or Maximum Power Saving. Many laptop computers allow you to switch off the wireless adapter altogether via either a hardware switch or a custom keyboard combination.

Sleep

This category contains three settings:

Sleep After Specify the number of minutes to wait before putting the Laptop to sleep. Normally, you’d set this setting by using the Put the Laptop to Sleep drop-down list in the Edit Plan Settings window.

Allow Hybrid Sleep Choose On or Off to control whether Win uses hybrid sleep, a mode that saves power while enabling you to resume your work almost immediately.

Hibernate After Specify the number of minutes of inactivity that Win should allow before it puts the Laptop into hibernation. Choose Never if you want to prevent hibernation.

Power Buttons & Lid

This category contains the following settings:

Lid Close Action For a laptop, choose the action that Win should take when you close the lid: Do Nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, or Shut Down. Normally, you’d set this setting in the System Settings window.

Power Button Action Choose the action that Win should take when you press the power button: Do Nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, or Shut Down. Normally, you’d set this setting in the System Settings window.

Sleep Button Action Choose the action that Win should take when you press the Sleep button: Do Nothing, Sleep, or Hibernate. Normally, you’d set this setting in the System Settings window.

Start Menu Power Button Choose the action that Win should take when you click the Power button on the Start menu: Do Nothing, Sleep, or Hibernate.

PCI fast

This category contains the Link State Power Management setting, which lets you choose the Active State Power Management policy to use: Off, Moderate Power Savings, or Maximum Power Savings.

Search & Indexing

This category contains the Power Savings Mode setting, which lets you choose which power plan to use for search & indexing: Power Saver, Balanced, or High Performance.

Display

This category contains the following options:

Turn Display Off After Specify how many minutes of inactivity Win should allow before it turns off the display. Normally, you’ll choose this setting in the Edit Plan Settings window.

Adaptive Display Choose On or Off to specify whether Win should increase the Turn Display Off After setting automatically if you keep turning it back on when it goes off. This setting is often helpful for getting the right display-off delay on Laptop.

Display Brightness For a laptop, choose the brightness to use when running on battery & when plugged in. Normally, you’ll choose this setting in the Edit Plan Settings window.

Multimedia Settings

This category contains the When Sharing Media setting, which lets you specify what Win should do if your computer is sharing media for example, songs with other computers. If your Laptop goes to sleep, the other computers will no longer be able to access the media. Choose Allow the Laptop to Sleep, Prevent Idling to Sleep, or Allow the Laptop to Enter Away Mode, as needed. Away mode is a kind of somnolence in which the Laptop appears to be asleep but can still take actions such as recording TV shows or sharing media with other computers.

Battery

This category contains settings for managing low & critical battery levels, alarms, & actions. Article 14 discusses these settings in more detail as batteries are mostly used in portable computers.

The Bottom Line Find out what hardware you can use with Win Win works with a wide variety of hardware provided that you can find a suitable driver for each device. You can use the Win Vista Upgrade Adviser page on the Microsoft website to find out whether a particular device is compatible with Win Vista.

Install, connect, & disconnect hot-pluggable devices Hot-pluggable devices are ones that you can plug in or unplug while Win is running. Hot-pluggable devices use USB, FireWire, & PC Card connections. Win automatically loads & unloads drivers for hot-pluggable devices as needed. You must be an Administrator or provide an Administrator password to install a hot-pluggable device. After that, any user can plug in or unplug a hot-pluggable device.

Install devices that are not hot pluggable To install a device that isn’t hot pluggable, turn off your Laptop and disconnect the power. Open the case, install & secure the device, & then close the case again. When you restart your Laptop after installing the device, Windows normally detects the device during startup. If Windows can find a driver for the device, it loads the driver automatically & configures the device. If Win can’t find a driver, it launches the Found New Hardware Wizard, which lets you tell Win where to find the driver. If Win doesn’t detect the device, you can run the Add Hardware Wizard to install the device manually.

Update, roll back, disable, & uninstall drivers To work with drivers, press Win Key+Break,click the Device Manage link in the System window, & then authenticate your- self to User Account Control. Right-click the device whose driver you want to change, & then choose Properties from the context menu. Use the buttons on the Driver page of the device’s Properties dialog box to update, roll back, disable, or uninstall a driver.

Configure power management to improve battery life or reduce consumption To improve battery life on a laptop Laptop or to reduce power consumption on a desktop, you can configure power options such as turning off the display or putting the Laptop to sleep after a specified period of inactivity. To work with these options, choose Start Control Panel, click the Hardware & Sound link, & then click the Power Options link. In the Power Options window, choose a power plan, & then click the Change Plan Settings link to customize its settings. Use the links in the left column of the Power Options window to access the main power configuration options.