Default power plans help you balance performance and battery life tradeoffs.
Windows Mobility Center, available in premium editions of Windows Vista, puts the most frequently used mobile PC settings in a single, easy-to-find location.
Mobile computing comes with its own set of challenges. Unlike a desktop computer—which connects to a single network and a steady power supply—a mobile PC forces you to manage transitions as you move from place to place. Sometimes you're plugged in, and sometimes you're using battery power. You might be connected to a corporate network in the morning, a wireless network in a client's conference room in the afternoon, and your home network in the evening.
Windows Vista addresses these unique needs by providing several new and enhanced features that make mobile computing easier. This section describes some of these key features and enhancements.
You now have more control than ever over how your mobile PC uses and manages power. Windows Vista offers simplified and more reliable power management compared to earlier versions of Windows.
Power settings in Windows Vista are based on power plans. A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your computer balances the tradeoff between power conservation and system performance. Windows Vista includes three Windows default power plans:
Balanced. This plan balances energy consumption and system performance by adapting your mobile PC's processor speed to your activity. For example, the processor speeds up when you play a multimedia game and slows down when you read a document.
Power saver. This plan saves power on your mobile PC by reducing system performance. You use it primarily when you want to maximize battery life.
High performance. This plan maximizes system performance on your mobile PC. You sacrifice some battery life to improve overall performance.
The Balanced plan meets most people's needs. You can easily change one or more settings in a Windows default power plan, such as the amount of time that elapses before your mobile PC goes to sleep or goes into hibernation. And, new in Windows Vista, if you don't like the changes that you made to a plan, you can restore the plan's default settings.
You can also easily switch between power plans by using the improved battery meter on the task bar or on the battery tile in Windows Mobility Center. You can see all of the power plans on your mobile PC in Control Panel and change settings there as well. The plan settings adjust when you are running on battery power, so you don't need to switch plans just because you pulled the plug.
In earlier versions of Windows, resuming from standby or hibernate was not always fast or reliable. Windows Vista promotes the use of the sleep state so you can use your computer whenever you want, without having to wait for the computer to start. To put your mobile PC to sleep, click the Power button on the Start menu. To wake your mobile PC, press the hardware power button.
Using sleep offers the following advantages:
Windows Vista saves your work and the state of your programs to memory and then puts the computer to sleep. If your battery is running low, Windows Vista saves your work to your hard disk and then turns off your mobile PC.
You don't have to wait for your mobile PC to shut down. It goes to sleep in only a few seconds.
When your mobile PC wakes, Windows Vista restores your previous work session within seconds. You don't need to restart your mobile PC, log on, and then open the files that you were working on.
Sleep is typically the best power-saving state for your mobile PC when you're not using it. You should shut down your mobile PC or put it into hibernation only when necessary—for example, when you don't plan to use it for several days.
Windows Vista makes it easy to determine how much battery life you have left and to manage the power consumption of your mobile PC. The battery icon in the notification area on the task bar provides information at a glance. It indicates when your battery is low, critical, or missing from your battery bay. If you hover your mouse over the battery meter, you can see the amount of time and percentage of battery power remaining, and also which power plan is active. If you click the battery meter, you see an expanded view, and you can immediately change the power plan. If you have more than one battery on your mobile PC, the expanded view provides details about each battery. Timely notifications tell you when your battery life reaches low and critical levels.
The improved battery meter gives a clear view of your power situation.
Presentation settings are options on your mobile PC that you can apply when you're giving a presentation. If you've ever had your display turn black during a presentation, you will appreciate that your screen saver can automatically turn off every time you give a presentation.
When presentation settings are turned on, your mobile PC stays awake and system notifications are turned off so they don't interrupt your presentation. You can also choose to turn off the screen saver, adjust the speaker volume, and change your desktop background image to another image or, in the case of Windows Meeting Space presentations or presentations given over a network, to a solid color to improve performance. Your settings are automatically saved and applied every time you give a presentation, unless you manually turn them off.
Presentation settings automatically turn off when you disconnect your mobile PC from a network projector or additional monitor, and also when you shut down or log off from your mobile PC.
Anyone who has tried to connect a mobile PC to an external display knows how challenging it can be. Windows Vista simplifies the process by automatically detecting the external display and showing your mobile PC's desktop. You can then choose how you want your desktop to appear and customize the display settings, such as resolution and color depth. You can also specify that a particular display is used for a presentation, which turns on the correct presentation settings automatically.
When you connect your mobile PC to an external display, Windows Vista opens the New Display Detected dialog box, where you can select one of the following display options:
Mirrored. Duplicates, or "mirrors," your desktop on each display. Mirrored is the default display option. It's useful when you plan to use your mobile PC to give a presentation on a projector or a fixed display in a conference room, such as a wall-mounted plasma display or a TV-type monitor.
Extended. Extends your desktop across all of the displays that you connect to, so that you can move program windows back and forth between the displays. This option is useful if you want to increase your work space.
External display only. Shows your desktop on all monitors that you connect to, but not on your mobile PC display. This display option is useful if you want to conserve battery power. You can also use this option when you play a DVD on a mobile PC that supports full-screen video playback on only one display.
Windows Vista makes it easy to give a presentation from a mobile PC. By using the Connect to a Network Projector wizard, you can connect to any Windows-compatible network projector over a wireless or wired network. A network projector is a shared resource that you can access from your mobile PC—much like a printer on a network.
The Connect to a Network Projector wizard offers two ways to connect to a projector:
Choose a projector. When you search for a projector, a list of available projectors appears on your local network.
Enter the network address of a specific projector. If you can't find the projector on your network or if you want to project to a remote projector, you can connect manually. Examples of a manual connection network address are http://server/projectors/projector_1 or \\server\projectors\projector_1.
When the wizard displays the available projectors, an icon appears next to each projector to indicate whether the projector is secured or unsecured.
Whether you choose a projector by selecting it from the list of available projectors or by entering its address, you must enter a password if the projector is secured.
When you use the wizard, your desktop will be mirrored; that is, the same image appears on your mobile PC display and on the projector. Presentation settings are automatically optimized for network performance.
Windows HotStart is a new feature in Windows Vista that enables you to click a button and immediately start a program regardless of whether your mobile PC is on, sleeping, in hibernation, or off. Within a few seconds of clicking a HotStart button, you can start a media program, such as Windows Media Player, to play a CD or watch a DVD that you've recorded, or browse and play audio and video files from your hard disk. At any point, you can exit or pause the media program to return to your desktop without having to restart your mobile PC.
Although HotStart is ideal for playing media that you've recorded or stored on your hard disk, you can also configure the button to start other programs, such as an e-mail program or web browser. HotStart also works on desktop computers.
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