Did you know that there is a way to change all computer settings on a network so that monitor, hard drive, and System Standby settings will reduce power usages when desktops/laptops are not in use during the night? Make these changes, and watch your carbon footprint, and your electricity bill, drop. Thanks to Paymon Mahdavi, our Systems Administrator, for sourcing this information and making these changes at our own office.Managing Power with Group Policy
by Mike Stephens, Microsoft Technet

The key to managing power on Windows XP is “Group Policy preferences” which is included in Windows Server 2008 Active Directory. Next, you need preference client side extensions that allow Windows XP to process Group Policy preference data. Client side extensions are available from Microsoft for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.

Preferences provide two items you can use to configure power on Windows XP. The first of these items is the Power Option item. Figure 1 shows you the properties on a Power Option preference item. This is one of the great features with preferences—the configuration screen closely resembles the screen you actually use on the operating system.

Figure 1- Power Option preference item

The Power Option preference item gives you the ability to configure hibernation, prompting for password when the computer resumes. Also, you can configure the Power button action when you close the lid of the computer (laptop), press the power button, or press the sleep button.

One of the cool things about preferences is you have control over which settings you want to configure and ones that you do not. Figure 1 shows each setting in the preference item underlined with a single green line. This means the setting in the item is enabled and the setting applies as configured. Using Figure 1 as an example, the Always show icon on the taskbar is enabled but, the checkbox is not selected. During Group Policy processing, this preference item configures Always show icon on the taskbar, Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby, and Enable Hibernateas off. This result is because the setting in the item was enabled (green underline) and the checkbox is cleared (off). This is a very powerful feature because it allows you full control over the setting you want to configure and the setting that you do not.

Preference items are not policy settings, which means they are not enforced—just applied. Users with the proper privileges may have the ability to change the preference setting to another selection. However, preference item settings return on the next Group Policy refresh, unless configured otherwise.

The other power preference item is Power Scheme. The Power Schemepreference item allows you to create, modify, and delete power schemes. This allows you to configure a Windows XP computer to use one of the pre-existing power schemes or modify the settings included in one of the pre-existing power schemes or, just you create your own—it is your choice. Each power scheme has settings for two options: Plugged in or Running on batteries. From there, you define the time out settings for turning off monitors, hard disks, system standby and system hibernate. The Power Scheme preference item has the same enable/disable feature as the Power Option preference item and behaves in the same fashion.

The one difference with the Power Schemes preference item is the Action field. The action field determines the action Group Policy processing applies to the specific preference item. Configuring a Power Scheme preference item to Create; does just that—it creates a new power scheme. However, if, on the computer applying the preference item, a power scheme with the same name exists, the preference item does nothing. Delete and Update do just what they describe—delete and update. However, Update does provide additional functionality other than updating an existing power scheme with new settings. If you configure your Power Scheme preference item to update a power scheme that does not exist on the applying computer, then a new power scheme is created with that name. Lastly, configuring the preference item with Replace has similar results to using Update. When using Update, the Power Scheme preference item only updates the enabled settings within the preference item on the existing named power scheme—leaving all other settings as they are. Replace, however; actually deletes the named power scheme from the computer and then creates a new power scheme based on the settings configured in the Power Scheme preference item.

Other things to remember with power management preference items:

• You can configure power management preference items in both computer and user configurations. Understand, user configuration apply after computer configuration. This results in the user settings replacing the current power settings, which could have been from another preference item.
• Local Administrators are Administrators. This means they can change their power configuration. Standard users cannot.
• When Group Policy applies power management preference items; those items become the current power management scheme—even after the user logs off.
• Power management preferences item support background refresh—your settings can change.