CHANGE FOR
THE BETTER WITH
ENERGY STAR
Products that earn the ENERGY STAR® prevent
greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy
efficiency guidelines set by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy,
www.energystar.gov
NO MORE EXCUSES: WINDOWS 7 MAKES IT EASY TO MANAGE
COMPUTER POWER CONSUMPTION ORGANIZATION-WIDE
Here's how you can take advantage of Windows 7's new power management features
The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh is no stranger to the idea of sustainability. In 2003 it became the first university
in the state to join the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership. Its green initiatives also earned the
university high marks from the Sierra Club, which ranked the university nationally in its Cool Schools survey.
Given this commitment to green, it's no surprise that the university first deployed computer power management back in
2005, and that it was one of the first Energy Star power management success stories.
At that time, the University's computers ran the Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems, neither of which
included native tools for the central administration of power management features.
To implement power management settings on these machines, the University used
third-party software from ENERGY STAR called EZ GPO.
Now that Windows 7 has CPM client management features built in, it's much
easier to administer power management. This case study will show you how
the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh took full advantage of computer power
management features on Windows Vista and Windows 7 clients managed by
Windows Server 2008.
For detailed information
and resources concerning
the power management of
PCs running Windows XP,
please see :he ENERGY STAR
website.
How to Set Up a Group Policy in Windows 7
The following instructions require that you are running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2 on the domain
controller. For Windows server 2008/2008 R2 to control the clients, clients must be running Windows 7 or Windows Vista.1
Important:\f you don't have the power.admx administrative template installed in the administrative templates folder
of the group policy management console, install it from Windows/system32/inf/adm/power.admx into the group policy
management console by right-clicking on the administrative templates folder under policies and selecting install, then
navigating to the Windows/system32/inf/adm/ folder on the local drive.
On the domain controller, open the group policy management console located at group policy
management>forest>domains>group policy objects. Right-click and select "New" to create a new policy. (See Figure 1).
FIGURE 1: Creating a new policy
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Important: Use the computer configuration
instead of user configuration.
Using a computer configuration ties the
sleep settings to the PC itself, so the PC will
sleep no matter who is logged in. However,
if the sleep settings instead are associated
with the user via user configuration, the
machine may not sleep when a user
logs off. This may be most problematic in
organizations where users are logged off
automatically for security reasons.
v>EPA
Eniironml'ntai Protection ' To read about solutions for activating sleep settings in a Windows Server 2003 environment, visit the ENERGY STAR Low Carbon IT website.
Agency

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Selecting Your Power Plan
To choose a specific power plan, go to the following location:
Computer config>policies>administrative templates>system>power management
From here, you can select one of three settings: auto, high performance, or power
saver. To save the most energy possible, choose power saver. For the vast majority
of users, choosing power saver will not affect PC performance.
You also can choose specific settings for whatever power plan is in use, choosing
to turn off the display or put the computer to sleep after a set number of seconds.
As is true of all policy settings discussed in this case study, this is supported on
Windows Vista and later. This edit alters the plan that is active on the machine.
To choose a display setting, go to power management>display settings (see Figure
2). From the settings list, select Display Timeout (Plugged In), as shown in Figure 3.
Most importantly, ignore the other settings in the list for now.
Select "enabled" and enter 900 seconds (15 minutes) for system sleep.
FIGURE 2: Navigation to display sleep policy
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Don't Confuse Group Preferences
with Group Policies
While you can use group
preferences to push sleep settings
to a Windows XP client, Windows
7 clients can accommodate
sleep settings as group policies,
which are more flexible. Group
preferences overwrite what's in
the client control panel and make
permanent modifications to the
registry. Unlike group preferences,
using a group policy does not
permanently modify the client
system in any way. Policies are
pushed down to the PC and the
PC implements them only if it is
in the assigned Active Directory
domain. Policies don't persist over
time. Group policies for power
management are only understood
natively by Windows Vista and
Windows 7 machines. Because
of these advantages, group policy
is always preferable to group
preferences.
For example, if a user defeats his
or her computer's sleep settings
(thereby wasting energy), group
policy overrides it. This allows
administrators to enforce the
policy across all machines and all
users. Even if you configure a PC
so the user can change the sleep
settings, they will revert to the
policy settings the next time the
user reboots.
(None of this should be confused
with group policy preferences,
a feature in Windows Server
2008 that allows administrators
to manage operating system and
application settings.)
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FIGURE 3: Display power timeout settings
Ouurn Off the Display (Plugged In)
B Turn Off the Display (Plugged In)
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[ho	3
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Specifies the period of inactivity before Windows turns off the - I
display.
If you enable this policy, you must provide a value, in seconds,
indicating how much idle time should elapse before Windows
turns off the display,
If you disable this policy or do not configure it, users can see and
change this setting.
Apply
EPA recommends setting computers
to enter system standby or hibernate
after 30 to 60 minutes of inactivity.
To save even more, set monitors
to enter sleep mode after 5 to 20
minutes of inactivity. The lower the
setting, the more energy you save.
The "Turn off hard disks" setting
does not save much power, and can
be ignored.
To choose a sleep setting:
Go to power management>sleep settings (see Figure 4). Select Sleep Timeout (Plugged In) from the list, as shown in Figure
5. Most important, choose "ignore others."
Select "enabled" and enter 1800 seconds (30 minutes) for system sleep. This is within the Energy Star recommended range
of 30-60 minutes.
FIGURE 4: Navigation to PC sleep settings
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j [m I .is-1 B ~ i t
"3
B _ System
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ii;j Turn Off Hybrid Sleep (Plugged In)
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ii:"i Allow Standby States (SI-S3) When Sleeping (On Battery)
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: Allow Applications to Prevent Automatic Sleep (On Battery)
,i=j Allow Automatic Sleep with Open Network Files (Plugged In)
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ii:j Specify the System Hibernate Timeout (On Battery)
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Specify the System Sleep Timeout (On Battery)
ii; Turn Off Hybrid Sleep (On Battery)
j^j Specify the Unattended Sleep Timeout (Plugged In)
: Specify the Unattended Sleep Timeout (On Battery)
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
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Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
Not configured
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FIGURE 5: PC sleep timeout settings
£? Specify the System Sleep Timeout (Plugged In)
Q Specify the System Sleep Timeout (Plugged In)
Previous Setting Next Setting
r Not Configured Comment:
(* Enabled
C Disabled
Options:
Supported on: At least Windows Vista
Help:
System Sleep Timeout (seconds):
[3010	3
d
~3
d
Specifies the period of inactivity before Windows transitions the
system to sleep.
If you enable this policy setting, you must provide a value, in
seconds, indicating how much idle time should elapse before
Windows transitions to sleep.
If you disable this policy setting or do not configure it, users can
see and change this setting.
Id
Apply
Lastly, go to Active Directory users and computers. In Group Policy Objects, apply the policyto the desired groups of
computers.
Select "OK." Your power management policy is now applied to your groups.
Rolling Out Windows 7 Savings
The University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh began its rollout of Windows 7 in June 2010. When the project is completed,
roughly 2900 of the university's computers will be running Windows 7. This total includes both faculty and staff machines
and PCs for student use in labs.
Because staff and students were in the habit of leaving computers and monitors turned on, EPA estimates that this project
will save the university more than $76,500 annually. Over three years, the useful life of a typical computer, this amounts to
well over $200,000, preventing more than 3,520 tons of C02 from being released into the atmosphere. To absorb that much
carbon naturally, you'd have to plant more than 725 acres of trees.
You can estimate your savings and reduced carbon emission using the same Energy Star online calculator.
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