gHacks technology news » vista battery drain http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:29:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Vista Battery Saver http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/26/vista-battery-saver/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/26/vista-battery-saver/#comments Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:47:44 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7238 Windows Vista drains the battery faster than comparable operating systems like Windows XP if battery live is tested on the same laptop. Most users suspect that it has something to do with all the fancy visual effects that Windows Vista uses. Whatever it is the effects are easily measurable by using a dual booting laptop with Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Vista Battery Saver is a software program that has been specifically designed to deal with the issue of faster battery drain in Windows Vista. It gives the user options at hand to turn off the Windows Aero interface and the Windows Vista Sidebar.

Options are to turn off the features whenever the laptop is running on battery, to keep the function activated or to turn it off whenever the battery level reaches a set limit. Vista Battery Saver provides access to the Vista power plans which can be configured from within the interface.

vista battery saver

Users who are unsure if the Vista Battery Saver application is reducing battery drain on their laptop running Windows Vista should do the following: Clock the time it takes to completely drain the laptop’s battery without running Vista Battery Saver, charge the battery again and do the same with the application running. It is important to perform the same tasks – or none at all – to be able to compare the results.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/26/vista-battery-saver/feed/ 2 Windows Vista Notebook Battery Saver http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/16/windows-vista-notebook-battery-saver/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/16/windows-vista-notebook-battery-saver/#comments Wed, 16 May 2007 07:58:37 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/16/windows-vista-notebook-battery-saver/ I have written an article a few days ago about the problem that the Vista Aero theme was consuming a lot of power which reduced battery life on notebooks by a measurable amount. One of my suggestions back then was to disable the Aero theme completely which is not really practicable if you want to work with Aero whenever the notebook is connected to a power source.

The software Vista Laptop Battery Saver (which I found at Windows Vista Tweaks) automates the process for us. The memory resident software waits in the background and reacts when the notebook is changing into battery mode. It will disable the Windows Vista Aero theme completely which means that you can work longer in battery mode.

It will also recognize when a power source is connected to the notebook and turn on the Aero theme automatically. This is probably the best solution if you want to work with Aero when you have a power source connected to your notebook. I decided to get rid of Aero completely and work with a custom theme which does not consume that much power.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/16/windows-vista-notebook-battery-saver/feed/ 1 Extend Windows Vista Battery Live for Notebooks http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/12/extend-windows-vista-battery-live-for-notebooks/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/12/extend-windows-vista-battery-live-for-notebooks/#comments Sat, 12 May 2007 05:58:49 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/12/extend-windows-vista-battery-live-for-notebooks/ I bought a Toshiba Notebook soon after Windows Vista was released and was wondering about the huge battery drain whenever I was using the Notebook without a power source. The battery drain is apparently caused by the Aero theme and the power settings for the wireless adapter. I was not even sure at the beginning if I was running Windows Aero or just a different interface but soon found out that the Aero interface, one of the few new things in Windows Vista, was active and draining battery life like crazy. I decided to disable the Aero interface because I could not see the use of it after all. Sure, it offers some nice looking effects but that is not the main purpose that I’m using the notebook after all.

To disable the Aero theme do the following:

Right-click on your desktop and select Personalize from the menu. Choose Windows Color and Appearance and click on Open Classic Appearance Properties for more color options. Select a different theme from the list (non Aero) and click on Apply.

The second battery drainer could be a wrong power setting. If you left-click the little battery icon in the system tray you see which power setting is currently used. I suggest you select the power saver option if the notebook is not connected to a power source. All other settings drain the battery pretty fast.

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