22. Performance Information and Tools
You can find the Performance Information and Tools item by typing performance in the Control Panel Search box. This option takes you to your Windows Experience Index, where you can
see an assessment of your system components on a scale of 1.0 to 9.9.
You can also see links to all sorts of performance-oriented settings
that can help improve the performance of your system, including
adjusting visual effects, indexing options, power settings, and more.
23. Personalization
The Personalization settings can be accessed by the Control Panel and
by right-clicking the Desktop and choosing Personalize. Here you can
select a theme to quickly change the Desktop background, window color,
sounds, and screen saver all at once. Or you can make changes to these
items individually.
There are links that take you to other
settings, such as Change Desktop Icons, Change Mouse Pointers, and
Change Your Account Picture.
24. Power Options
These settings are always under scrutiny and
constantly improving to meet the needs of a green IT effort. At home or
in the office, reducing power usage is a good way to conserve battery
life in portables and save on power spending. As shown in Figure 15, Windows provides several power plans to choose from.
Figure 15. Create your own power configuration and “go green” with Power Plans.
The following power plans are designed to configure hardware and system settings to accommodate different power objectives:
• Balanced—This offers
full performance when you need it and saves power during periods of
inactivity. This is well suited for most configurations.
• Power Saver—This
conserves power by reducing system performance and screen brightness.
If you need to get the most out of a single laptop charge, this is the
plan for you.
• High Performance—You
need to click on the down arrow on Show Additional Plans to see the
High Performance option. This increases the screen brightness and, in
some cases, might increase the computer’s performance.
If you are used to earlier power options,
these power plans aren’t new; they were formerly known as schemes. The
difference is that now you can easily select one of three default
options unless you want to get more involved.
You can configure the options in any one of
those default plans or configure a personal plan that suits you. By
selecting the initial link to edit settings, you will be selecting when
to Turn Off the Display and when to Put the Computer to Sleep. If you
select Change Advanced Power Settings, you are taken to a much more
involved dialog with all sorts of options for password settings, when
to turn off the hard disk, adapter settings, and much more.
Creating an Energy-Saving Plan in Power Options
The following steps show you how to create an
energy-saving power plan. Laptop users have additional choices to
select that are not shown here.
1. From the Start screen right-click on the screen.
2. Click the All Apps button that appears on the lower-right corner of the screen.
3. Select Control Panel.
4. Select Sound and Hardware.
5. Select Power Options.
6. In the left pane, click Create a Power Plan. This opens the Create a Power Plan page.
7. Select Power Saver.
8. In the Plan Name box, type Reduced Energy Plan.
9. Click Next.
10. On the Change
Settings for the Plan page, there are two drop-down menus. From the
Turn Off the Display drop-down, select 2 Minutes.
11. From the Put the Computer to Sleep drop-down, select 10 Minutes.
12. Click Create.
Your new reduced energy plan is now in effect.
To change the way the power buttons
respond on your computer, in the left pane of the Power Options page,
click Choose What the Power Buttons Do. When you press the Power button
or Sleep button, you can have the computer shut down, sleep, hibernate,
or do nothing at all. This page is also where you can configure your
password protection on your Wakeup options.
