Can't save new Power Options profiles

[Michel Merlin]

UntitledIn a newly installed Windows XP Pro, I go to Start >
Settings > Control Panel > Power Options, and I try to save new
profiles in the "Power schemes" box.

Unfortunately after carefully tuning my profile, I "save" it...
only to see it has disappeared next time I come back to Power
Options. The only 3 profiles that remain are the 2 original
ones, "Home/Office Desk" and "Portable/Laptop", and the one I
could secure at the very beginning, before they start to
disappear, "Battery Drain" (to help maintaining my battery in
good shape).

I tried several different ways, changing the settings then
applying then "Save As", or first "Save As" the current profile
then trying to change it, and so on. Some ways seem to work but
when I come back the new profile has disappeared.

I remember I had alreay that problem a few years ago in W2K,
that I searched with no success for weeks before stumbling on
the solution y accident; this is why all my other PCs have their
6 or 7 profiles OK. But I can't remember that solution... Thanks
for any help,

Paris, Mon 20 Mar 2006 20:15:55 +0100

 

[Michel Merlin]

See my thanks to Jon (and his and my explanations) in my message
of 15:32:15 +0100 on XP newsgroup.

Paris, Thu 23 Mar 2006 17:39:30 +0100


----- Previous Message (links are clickable) -----
From: "Michel Merlin" <[email protected]>
Newsgroup: news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Message: Sent: Thu 23 Mar 2006 15:32:15 +0100
Subject: Lost "Power Options": remove wrong Values in
"PowerPolicies" Registry Key (Thanks Jon!)

Thanks Jon! Right on the spot! Yes this is the solution I used
too, and it worked at once (I make a visible title for others
eventually in the same boat, and I develop for them - knowing
the time that may be wasted looking for this!).

It seems Windows does 3 questionable things in that affair:

1) when parsing the Registry Key you recall
(HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg\PowerPolicies),
Windows apparently stops parsing as soon as it hits an
incomplete Value; namely, a Value without a name.

2) This parsing is done by sorting the Values by their
*numbers*, but *alphabetically* instead of numerically -
which builds the following order:
0, 1, 10, 11, 12, ..., 2, 21, 22, ...
(BTW this mistake, out of casualness, is frequent - and most
often IMO loses more time on the reader's side than it saves on
the writer's one).

3) It happens (probably due to another mistake in Windows code)
that the new profiles you enter, when converted into "Values" to
be stored in the said Registry Key, have no more name.

The result is: as you add new Values that all are losing their
names, as soon as one of them reaches the "10" number, it gets
sorted between "1" and "2"; then it causes all the main Values
(0, 1, 2, 3, .., 8, 9) to be ignored, unless the 0 ("Home/Office
Desk") and 1 ("Portable/Laptop").

Then doing exactly as you said (exporting or deleting all the
Values missing a name), does immediately retrieve all your
profiles - which then were hidden, not lost.
Thanks again Jon!

Paris, Thu 23 Mar 2006 15:32:15 +0100


----- Parent Message (links are clickable) -----
From: "Michel Merlin" <[email protected]>
Newsgroup: news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.win2000.general
Message: Sent: Mon 20 Mar 2006 20:15:55 +0100
Subject: Can't save new Power Options profiles

In a newly installed Windows XP Pro, I go to Start >
Settings > Control Panel > Power Options, and I try to save new
profiles in the "Power schemes" box.

Unfortunately after carefully tuning my profile, I "save" it...
only to see it has disappeared next time I come back to Power
Options. The only 3 profiles that remain are the 2 original
ones, "Home/Office Desk" and "Portable/Laptop", and the one I
could secure at the very beginning, before they start to
disappear, "Battery Drain" (to help maintaining my battery in
good shape).

I tried several different ways, changing the settings then
applying then "Save As", or first "Save As" the current profile
then trying to change it, and so on. Some ways seem to work but
when I come back the new profile has disappeared.

I remember I had alreay that problem a few years ago in W2K,
that I searched with no success for weeks before stumbling on
the solution y accident; this is why all my other PCs have their
6 or 7 profiles OK. But I can't remember that solution... Thanks
for any help,

Paris, Mon 20 Mar 2006 20:15:55 +0100