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Last week, Microsoft made two major announcements with respect to PC power management: endorsing a free power management application for consumers and launching a free ENERGY STAR solution for licensed System Center Configuration Manager 2007 users.

These announcements generated a lot of interest in PC power management and led some of our blog readers to ask: “These new tools are great, but what power management features does Windows Vista offer out-of-the-box?”

There are a number of resources available on the Microsoft Environment site that help answer this question, including:

• Windows Vista: Powering Down Grows Up, which provides a broad overview of power management features in Windows Vista;
• Technical Guidance - Power Management, which features power management resources for IT professionals and developers on the sidebar.

TechNet also features a number of Windows Vista related power management articles in its Sustainable Computing section –which also are featured in the Technical Guidance section of the Microsoft Environment site:

• Sleep or Hibernate?, which provides an overview of the different power states in Windows Vista to consumers;
• Conserving Energy with Group Policy, which explains how IT professionals can develop custom power plans using Group Policy Settings.

Finally, Windows Hardware Developer Central features a white paper on energy conservation in Windows Vista. This paper outlines the potential energy savings available when deploying Windows Vista and the significant changes from Windows XP. These savings are presented in terms of both financial and environmental impact.

Source:→ MSDN Blogs