• Michael Dell: Vista will win out in two years
  Dell says what many of us know, Vista uptake is slow, but will come around quickly once businesses have time to test it, and hardware is compatible.
  (tags: PR )
• Vista ReadyDrive and hybrid hard drives (HHD) bring no power savings for laptops
  You’ll need a solid state drive (SDD) to see any significant power savings.
  (tags: Power ReadyDrive HHD )

You’ll need a solid state drive (SDD) to see any significant power savings. Keep reading →

• Vista Computers Save about $75 per Year in Energy
  The effects of Vista’s Power Saver plan is measurable.
  (tags: Power Environment )
• The mystery continues: Why are Windows machines automatically updating themselves?
  Is it a sinister plot?
  (tags: Updates )

The effects of Vista’s Power Saver plan is measurable. Keep reading →

As I write this, it’s Blog Action Day, when bloggers around the web unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind. This year it is the environment. How does Vista relate to the environment? It uses resources, and by reducing the resources it uses, you can help reduce it’s effect on the environment. So here’s a tip on how to reduce Vista’s thirst for power. Keep reading →

You perform one of the following operations on a Windows Vista-based computer:

• Connect to a shared printer on the network, and then run the “Common Scenario Stress with IO” test in Driver Test Manager (DTM).
• Print to a shared printer on the network.
• Perform a power management operation. For example, you put the computer to sleep or into hibernation. Or, you wake the computer from sleep or from hibernation.

In this scenario, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following:

*** STOP: 0×0000009F (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4)
DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

You experience the following symptoms on a computer that is running Windows Vista:

• The Allow hybrid sleep option is missing from the Advanced settings tab of the Power Options dialog box in Windows Vista.
• When you run the powercfg.exe -a command to list the power states that are supported on the computer, the output that appears includes the following lines:
  

  The system firmware does not support this standby state.
  Hybrid Sleep

These symptoms occur intermittently. When you restart the computer, the Allow hybrid sleep option reappears. Additionally, when you run the powercfg.exe -a command again, the output that appears includes a line that resembles the following:

The following sleep states are available on this system: Hybrid Sleep

When you configure power options for the active (current) power plan in Windows Vista, the changes are not reflected on the System Settings page in the Power Options item in Control Panel.

This behavior does not occur if you are currently using the default, or “preferred,” power plan. The preferred power plan is specified in the registry.

A tutorial showing how to use Vista’s power management controls.

Microsoft recommends letting your computer sleep or hibernate to save power. Don’t connect anything to your computer, and don’t run any software, and it works nearly flawlessly. See the KB-Links for details on the many issues. Keep reading →