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Windows 7 is better than Vista in so many ways, but it's actually a lot worse in some others. Take, for example, choosing power plans from the system tray.
In Windows Vista, you could click on the battery meter and choose between the 3 plans: High Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver.
Now, for some idiotic reason, Microsft decided to limit our choices to only TWO plans from the system tray: your current plan + Balanced (if balanced is selected I believe it defaults to Power Saver for the 2nd one). To change it to the 3rd one I have to actually click on "More Power Options" and then select the plan.
Microsoft is requiring you to take extra steps for doing something that was easier before. I thought Windows 7's mantra was "do things faster" (i.e. Jumplists, Aero Peek, Accelerators, etc.) Who was the moron who made this decision, and how can I get my Vista-style Power tray back?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Um maybe if you read my original post (or if use Windows 7 itself), Balanced is ALWAYS shown, even if it wasn't your 'old' plan. So you can't flip-flop between Power Saver and High Performance, which is what I want.
What if I deleted the Balanced power plan? Is there a way to delete the default plans?
Yes, there is a way.
FlyoutAutoPowerScheme: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749282(WS.10).aspx
Rating posts helps other usersMark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
Right glkoz3 - But as I'm sure others would agree, you don't need 3, as long as you can get "Balanced" out of the loop.
These instructions do that.
"Nobody uses Balanced. This is by design." - Me
One thing I've always wondered was whether the Power Plans only change brightness, Aero, and Sleep/Display timers, or whether they do more than that. The reason I've always avoided just changing the name of the power plan and its settings was because I thought the power plans also did something on the backend like for example for High Performance they would overclock the CPU, and vice versa for Power Saver. I know this sound silly, but can anyone clarify whether this is true or not please? Thanks.
I know this sound silly, but can anyone clarify whether this is true or not please? Thanks.
Yes, it is. Look in advanced settings for power plans, there are "minimum processor state" and "maximum processor state". In my power saver plan, maximum processor state is set to 50%. That means, my processor only works 50% from its maximum clock. My CPU is Core2Duo 2 GHz, thus in power saver is 1 GHz.
I had this need to limit CPU to 90%, so that my lap or the table doesn't catch fire.
