Changing Your Windows XP Power Settings

Your computer's power policies are important to how well your computer performs. From time to time, it becomes necessary to change your computer's power policies. With Windows XP, changing your computer's power policies is by no means difficult and is incredibly useful. However, any time you manipulate your operating system's registry, you should be certain that you are doing the right thing. The purpose of this article is to help you ensure that you are aware of how your registry is changed when you alter your computer's power policies.

Your preferences must be set according to your needs. To ensure that they are set according to your needs you should click the button labeled "power" under the tab labeled "Screen Saver" which can be accessed by right clicking on your computer's desktop and the selecting the button labeled "Properties." While the above is intended for use on Windows XP, it is not difficult to use them as a guide for use with Windows Vista. This is because the process of checking your preference setting on Windows Vista is not all that different from doing so on a Windows XP computer. After you have completed the process of accessing your preferences, it is possible to adjust your computer's registry power policies. This is done through the creation of one registry file per scheme. The final step in this process is the simplest: select the desired registry file. As you can see, this process is not a difficult or confusing one.

Six groups of power settings exist for Windows XP. Because of this six registry files will be necessary. To help you get started, you should open notepad. You should then copy and paste what is written in quotations below. What is written in brackets is intended to be instructions for you.

"Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00"

[Here you should leave a line blank]

"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg

CurrentPowerPolicy=0"

What you name this file is not important. What is important is that the name of the file ends with .reg. Of course, it is important that you are able to recognize this file. As such it may be advisable to include the words "scheme" and the number "one" in the name of the file. That "CurrentPowerPolicy" equals zero in the code means that this scheme is scheme one. In Windows XP, scheme one is also called "Home/Office Desk. Five more schemes must be prepared in order for you to have all the power options possible available to you.

If an error occurs when you try to use one of these registry files, which are opened by double clicking on the file, then the file must have been poorly put together. A common error is leaving a space before the text in the file. If the file is working correctly, you will be asked to confirm your decision to alter your registry by writing this new information onto it. Here you should select the button that says "yes." After you have finished this, it will be easy to change your computer's power settings.