Power management in Vista

[Michele]

Hi all.
I have some questions about Vista Power management:
First of all i am configuring a power scheme for my home pc that it is used
by multiple users but i am the only one administrator.
I expected that standard users couldn't change power settings, instead they
can and once they did it the settings and the scheme are applied to all
user(Administrator included). Is there a way that only administrator can
change power settings so that they are applied to all the user of the pc?
Second question: i want to configure a general power scheme when any of the
users is logged in and i want to configure another different power scheme
when no user is logged in, that is when it is showed the welcome screen. How
can i configure a power scheme for the welcome screen?
To be more clear i want, for example, that when any of user is logged in,
the system goes into sleep after one hour of inactivity, instead when no user
is logged in , that is when it is showed the welcome screen, i want that the
system goes into sleep after 1 minute.
Thanks a lot
Michele

 

[Lang Murphy]

Hi all.
I have some questions about Vista Power management:
First of all i am configuring a power scheme for my home pc that it is
used
by multiple users but i am the only one administrator.
I expected that standard users couldn't change power settings, instead
they
can and once they did it the settings and the scheme are applied to all
user(Administrator included). Is there a way that only administrator can
change power settings so that they are applied to all the user of the pc?
Second question: i want to configure a general power scheme when any of
the
users is logged in and i want to configure another different power scheme
when no user is logged in, that is when it is showed the welcome screen.
How
can i configure a power scheme for the welcome screen?
To be more clear i want, for example, that when any of user is logged in,
the system goes into sleep after one hour of inactivity, instead when no
user
is logged in , that is when it is showed the welcome screen, i want that
the
system goes into sleep after 1 minute.
Thanks a lot
Michele

Michele,

I can only speak to your first question... to stop users from changing power
settings, one can hide the power options in CP (Control Panel)... this would
be from everyone, so if you wanted to change them, you'd have to unhide it,
make the changes and then hide it again.

There may be more than one way to do this... maybe TweakVI has the
capability, I don't know... (I read so many negative reviews on TweakVI that
I will not install it to see if it will allow one to hide different CP
items.)

At any rate, you can hide the Power Options settings in CP using the local
gpo (Group Policy Object) editor.

Kick off the MMC (Microsoft Management Console) you can do that by typing
MMC in the Start | Search box and pressing the Enter key.

If you have UAC enabled, click the Continue button in the UAC dlg box.

That should open a window titled "Console1 - (Console Root)"

Hit Ctrl-M keys simultaneously. That will open the "Add or Remove Snap-In"
window.

In the Available Snap-ins group on the left side, double click on Group
Policy Object Editor. That will open the Select Group Policy Object window.

Press Enter key.

Press Enter key.

Navigate to Console Root\Local Computer Policy\User
Configuration\Administrative Templates\Control Panel

With Control Panel selected, in the middle window you should see an entry
"Hide specified Control Panel items"

Double click on that...

Click on the Enabled radio button.

Click on the Show button.

Click on the Add button.

Type "Power Options" in the input box.

Press Enter key or click the OK button.

Click Apply button.

Click OK button.

Close the Console1 window (you'll be prompted if you want to save the
settings to Console1. If you want to save a few steps in the future to
access gpo's, you can save the settings and the next time you open the mmc
instance you've just saved [you'll be prompted to name it... and location
for saving] you won't have to go through the process of drilling down into
the MMC to add the gpos to the console window.)

Now no one will see the power options settings in CP. (Do note, however,
that if you have CP open when you effect this setting you will probably have
to close it and reopen it to verify that the Power Options setting is now
hidden.)

Good luck!

Lang