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Windows 7: Change the Start Menu Power Button Settings

contributed by Rob Rogers on August 30, 2010 under Green computing, Microsoft Windows 7

If the current setting for the Start Menu power button do not meet your needs, you can easily change it (to sleep, hibernate, or shutdown) through the following instructions.

Zune HD: How to Turn the Device Off

contributed by Rob Rogers on September 24, 2009 under Green computing, Zune

Even though the Zune HD has a power button, simply pressing it will not turn the device off. To turn off your Zune HD and preserve your battery, follow these steps.

Windows 7: Check Your System’s Power Efficiency

contributed by Rob Rogers on May 21, 2009 under Green computing, Microsoft Windows 7

By running a Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report, you can view an analysis of your system and check common energy efficiency and battery life problems as well as check for errors and warnings for your power setup and hardware.

BlackBerry: Set Your Device to Automatically Turn On and Off

contributed by Rob Rogers on August 16, 2008 under Blackberry, Green computing

If you want to conserve battery power, you can set your BlackBerry to turn off and on at set times by using the Auto On/Off function. I set mine to turn off at my bedtime and turn back on right before I am to awake so that it’s ready to go.

Vista: Enable / Disable Hibernate Mode from the Command Line

contributed by Rob Rogers on July 20, 2008 under Green computing, Microsoft Vista

Instead of using the GUI (Control Panel | Power Options | Power Plan) to enable or disable Hibernate, you can do this from the command line.

Ubuntu: Make Your Laptop Enter Suspend or Hibernate Mode When You Close the Lid

contributed by Rob Rogers on May 15, 2007 under Green computing, Linux

By using Ubuntu’s Power Management Preferences, you can set your laptop to either enter a Suspended state (also known as ACPI sleep) or go into hibernate mode. The Suspend setting is good for short periods of inactivity (or while you are plugged in) since it does use a small amount of power, while the Hibernate mode works better for longer periods of inactivity (or while you are on battery power) since it writes the RAM contents to the hard drive.

Vista: What Sleep States are Available on Your Computer?

contributed by Rob Rogers on March 27, 2007 under Green computing, Microsoft Vista

Depending on your video card, some sleep states may not be available on your computer. You can see what states are available as well as what states are unavailable and why. This is done by using the command-line utility, powercfg. Here’s how:

Vista: Change the Start Menu Power Button Settings

contributed by Rob Rogers on February 14, 2007 under Green computing, Microsoft Vista

If the current setting for the Start Menu power button do not meet your needs, you can easily change it (to sleep, hibernate, or shutdown) by following these instructions: