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Vista Battery Saver Beta

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:34:02 +0000

Windows Vista in its default state needs a lot of battery power on my notebook which is why I deactivated several features like the Vista Aero theme or the sidebar when working without a power source. The free software Vista Battery Saver which is currently a beta offers a way to manage the power handling automatically.

It can be configured to automatically deactivate the sidebar and the aero theme when running on battery and enable them again when the notebook is connected to a power source. It is also possible to mange the Vista power plans automatically with the application and choose a power plan for battery mode and one when connected to a power source.

Vista Battery Saver has to be started with Vista to be able to change the power management for the user. The application does only need about 6 Megabytes of RAM and almost no CPU power.

Windows Vista Aero Color Transform

Martin Brinkmann — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:27:04 +0000

I found a nice little Windows Vista utility to change the appearance of the Aero Glass theme even further by allowing color transformations. The normal Windows Vista style has a static color while the Vista Color Transform application may change colors over time.

The software offers a pre-defined sets of colors that have names such as Patriotic, My Eyes!! and Winter displaying small preview images of the colors that are cycled through. If you take Winter for example you see white and icy colors when you click on edit.

It is furthermore possible to add colors to the cycle and even create your own. While this is nice for presentation it does not really add something to your daily routine. There is however an interesting option for notebook users.

You may either change the color to a darker one when you use the notebook battery only which would result in lesser power consumption or change the color according to the battery life. This would cycle the color from white to a darker color as well depending on the power level of the battery.

Extend Windows Vista Battery Live for Notebooks

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 12 May 2007 05:58:49 +0000

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.