Microsoft has launched their latest and greatest operating system, Windows 7.  One of the qualities they feature is improved Power Management. The focus of power saving is to extend a laptop’s battery life.

“Windows 7 is designed to help your battery last longer.

How? For starters, Windows 7 runs with fewer background activities so your PC processor doesn’t work as hard and draws less power. Other innovations include less power-hungry DVD playback (handy on long flights), automatic screen dimming, powering off unused ports, and a more accurate battery-life indicator. So you’ll be less likely to be surprised by a dead battery.”

Windows 7 also has more energy saving options for IT administrators.  Per Rob Bernard, Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, “Windows 7 is the first [Microsoft] operating system to operate at this granular level” of control over energy-saving options, the server and client interaction allows IT [departments] to run a power-efficiency diagnostics chart and then use that information to adjust PCs for optimum operation.”

Monitor brightness can account for as much as 40 percent of overall system power consumption; with Windows 7, by default, the screen can dim but not go completely black when the system is left idle, saving energy but not frustrating the user with the need to awaken a black screen. Microsoft estimated 70% of business PC users leave their PCs on at night for various reasons. Windows 7 is also a lot smarter at reducing power consumption for expansion ports and peripherals.  Power Efficiency diagnostics have also been added.

To tune Windows 7 powering savings:

1. Click Start, Go to Control Panel, and then select Power Options.
2. Select Power Saver and customize the settings for the length of time you want the system to stay on after you’ve finished using the computer.
3. Go to the Change Advanced power settings and select Hybrid Sleep. Hybrid Sleep ensures you will not lose any documents if you forget to save them.
4. If you have an older hard drive, you can set it to sleep after 15 minutes of inactivity. Newer hard drive have that built in.  USB Selective Suspend sleeps your USB connected devices, try it out, as some devices will not support it. Notebook users can set Maximum Processor State to a lower value to save energy but run slower.  Display controls when your monitor dims, set it to 5 minutes or so.

This technical article helps you navigate the powercfg tool in the Windows 7 command line, to isolate power hogging drivers.

Clearly Windows 7 has many more hooks to help users, IT departments, and hardware companies to save energy.  In the end, all three must work together to achieve meaningful power savings.

Be sure to read: Extend Battery Life, Laptop Battery Life, iPhone Battery Life