There should be some "Power" in your Desktop Management

Microsoft put out an article today "Why PCs should get more sleep" which does a fantastic job at making the case for power management for desktop (and laptop) PCs. Microsoft had an independant UK firm - PC Pro Labs - do a study on how much would be saved by implementing power management - about 200 tons of carbon dioxide and about $92/year per desktop! Microsoft has had power scheme management all the way back to Windows 98 (can't remember if 95 had it or not), so the numbers would be as impressive, if not identical.

ScriptLogic has been on this bandwagon since Desktop Authority version 7 (we're releasing version 7.6 within weeks) with both management of Power Schemes for Windows 98-Vista, but also one other facet of power management - shutting down inactive users after business hours. It's one thing to put a monitor in sleep mode during the day, becuase it is easy to bring back to life without disrupting the PC user's productivity. But if you were to put the machine in Hibernation, it would take about as long as booting up the PC where the user's productivity is lowered (well, OK, the hibernation is a bit less than a boot up, but you get my point).

So it makes sense to have one group of settings that balance saving energy with user productivity throughout the business day (as the EPA estimates that a given PC is inactive about 58% of the work day), and a completely different strategy after hours - the EPA estimates that only 36% of all PCs are shut down at night! This is the real energy waster.

So we implemented an Inactivity Timer to monitor keyboard and mouse activity and allow IT to shut down the computer after a specified amount of time during a time range one would assume is after hours.

The result is a true balance of saving energy costs, the environment and users' productivity.

If you'd like to see how much you can save by implementing Power Management on your desktops, try ScriptLogic's Power Management Calculator.

You can also read our Power Management Whitepaper.