All mobile and power settings are configured within the Control Panel. After you open the Control Panel, click Mobile PC (see Figure 12.1).

Figure 12.1. Mobile PC options in the Control Panel.

To make finding these settings quick and easy, Windows Vista includes the Windows Mobility Center, which provides a single location that enables you to quickly adjust mobile PC settings. Depending on your system, the Mobility Center window has some, but perhaps not all, of the following tiles (see Figure 12.2):

Figure 12.2. Windows Mobility Center.

If a tile doesn’t display, it may be because the required hardware, such as a wireless network adapter, or drivers are missing.

If you need to make additional adjustments to your mobile PC settings that require you to access Control Panel, click the icon on a tile to open the Control Panel for that setting. For example, you can select an existing power plan from the Battery Status tile, or you can click the icon on the tile to open Power Options in the Control Panel to create a power plan.

The Mobility Center can be opened using any one of the following methods:

One of the goals of mobile computers is to run off the battery for as long as possible. Therefore, the mobile computers use components that typically use less power than components that you would find in a desktop computer. Consider the following:

Power Plans

A power plan (formerly known as power schemes in earlier versions of Windows) is a collection of hardware and system settings that manages how your computer uses and conserves power. You can use power plans to save energy, maximize system performance, and balance energy conservation with performance.

Windows Vista includes three default power plans (see Figure 12.3):

• Balanced. Offers full performance when you need it and saves power during periods of inactivity.

• Power saver. Saves power by reducing system performance. This plan can help mobile PC users get the most from a single battery charge.

• High performance. Maximizes system performance and responsiveness. Mobile PC users may notice that their batteries don’t last as long when using this plan.

Figure 12.3. Configuring power plans using the Control Panel.

If a default plan doesn’t meet your needs (even if you change some settings), you can create your own plan by using a default plan as a starting point.

To change an existing plan, follow these steps:

1. Open Power Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Power Options.

2. On the Select a Power Plan page, click Change Plan Settings under the plan that you want to change.

3. On the Change Settings for the Plan page, choose the display and sleep settings that you want to use when your computer is running off the battery and when it’s plugged in.

4. If you don’t want to change any more settings, click Save Changes. To change additional power settings, click Change Advanced Power Settings.

5. On the Advanced Settings tab, expand the category that you want to customize, expand each setting that you want to change, and then choose the values that you want to use when your computer is running on battery and when it’s plugged in.

6. Click OK to save the changes, and then click the Close button on the Change Settings for the Plan page.

To create your own plan, follow these steps:

1. Open Power Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Power Options.

2. On the Select a Power Plan page, in the task pane, click Create a Plan.

3. On the Create a Power Plan page, select the plan that’s closest to the type of plan that you want to create.

4. In the Plan Name box, enter a name for the plan, and then click Next.

5. On the Change Settings for the Plan page, choose the display and sleep settings that you want to use when your computer is running on battery and when it’s plugged in, and then click Create.

If you created power plans that you no longer use or need, you can delete them. To delete a plan, follow these steps:

1. Open Power Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking Power Options.

2. If the active plan is the one that you want to delete, make a different plan the active plan.

3. On the Select a Power Plan page, click Change Plan settings under the plan that you want to delete.

4. On the Change Settings for the Plan page, click Delete this Plan.

5. When prompted, click OK.

Note

You can’t delete any of the three default power plans (Balanced, Power saver, or High performance).

Shutdown Options

When you shut down your computer, all open files are saved to the hard disk, the contents of the memory are saved to the hard disk or discarded as appropriate, the page file is cleared, and all open applications are closed. The active user is then logged out of Windows and the computer is turned off. Of course, this may take a minute or two depending on the computer and the applications that the computer was running at the time of shutdown.

Windows Vista offers two other modes besides shutdown. When you hibernate your computer, the system state, along with the contents of the system memory, is saved to a file (Hiberfil.sys) on the hard disk and the computer is shut down. The Hiberfil.sys file will be the same size as the amount of physical memory (RAM). No power is required to maintain this state because the data is stored on the hard disk. You can then continue where you left off within a short time.

Sleep is a power-saving state that saves work and open programs to memory. To maintain the contents of memory while the computer is in Sleep mode, the system still consumes a small amount of power. The advantage of Sleep mode is that you can continue where you left off, typically within a few seconds.

Hybrid Sleep, a combination of Sleep and Hibernate, saves your work to your hard disk and puts your mobile PC into a power-saving state. If you suffer a power failure on a computer when it is in a Hybrid Sleep state, your data will not be lost. Hybrid Sleep is turned off by default on mobile PCs.

When you click the power button on the Start menu, Windows Vista automatically goes into Sleep mode. If your battery power is low, Windows Vista hibernates the computer.

In addition to power plans, you can configure what the computer does when you press the power button or when you close the lid (on a laptop computer). You can also tell Windows Vista whether to prompt for a user password when returning to its power-on state. You can also control button actions depending on whether the computer is plugged in or running on battery power (see Figure 12.4).

Figure 12.4. System settings for power, sleep buttons, and lid settings.

While using mobile computers, sometimes you are connected to a corporate network and other times you are not. Sometimes you might want to work on the files stored on a network server even when you are not connected to the network that holds the network server. You might also want to connect mobile devices such as phones and PDAs to your mobile computer or desktop computer so that information can be copied back and forth.

The new Windows Vista Sync Center provides a single easy-to-use interface to manage data synchronization between multiple computers, including network servers, and with mobile devices you connect to your computer. To start the Sync Center, click the Start button, click All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Sync Center.

To set up synchronization between two computers, you create a sync partnership between two or more sync locations, which specifies what files and folders to sync, where to sync them, and when (see Figure 12.5). You can schedule an automatic sync on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or when a specific event occurs, such as every time you log on to your computer. You can also perform a manual sync at any time, such as when you are getting ready to disconnect a mobile PC from the network and want to make sure you have the latest copies of files on a network server.

Figure 12.5. Sync Center.

Every time you sync files between two locations (such as between a computer and a mobile device), Sync Center compares the files in both locations to determine whether they still match or whether any have changed. It determines whether any files need to be updated to stay in sync.

If the files differ, Sync Center determines which version of each file to keep and copies that version to the other location, overwriting the other version there. It selects the most recent version to keep, unless you have set up the sync partnership to sync differently. Sometimes Sync Center will prompt you to choose which version of a file to keep. This usually occurs when a file has changed in both locations since the last sync. When this happens, Sync Center will notify you of a sync conflict, which you must resolve before it can sync the items in conflict.

When you set up the synchronization, you may set up a one-way or two-way synchronization. In one-way sync, files are copied from a primary location to a secondary location, but no files are ever copied back to the primary location. In two-way sync, Sync Center copies files in both directions, keeping the two locations in sync with each other. Most sync partnerships are automatically set up to perform either one-way or two-way sync, although some sync partnerships let you choose.

You might set up two-way sync between a network folder and your computer, where you instruct Sync Center to copy the newest version of any file it finds to the other location, overwriting any older versions of the same file. This is a good way to sync if you work with the same files on both the network folder and your computer, and you want to make sure you always have the most recent version of every file you’ve worked on.

You might set up one-way sync for a portable music player, for example, where you instruct Sync Center to copy every new music file from your computer to the mobile device but never to copy music files in the other direction (from the device to your computer).

Offline Folders

To create an offline folder, open a network folder, right-click a file or folder, and select Always Available Offline. Windows automatically creates a copy of that file or folder on your computer. Anytime you reconnect to that network folder, Windows will sync the files between your computer and the network folder. You can also sync them manually at any time.

In addition, you can encrypt your offline files to help secure private information. Of course, when you encrypt offline files, only your user account can access the cached data.

To configure offline files, click Control Panel, then click Network and Internet, and then click Offline Files. From the General tab in the Offline Files dialog box, you can enable or disable offline files by clicking the top button. You can also use the General tab to open Sync Center and view your offline files (see Figure 12.6).

Figure 12.6. Offline files options.

The Disk Usage tab enables you to see how much disk space is currently being used by offline files and enables you to change the limits of storage that offline files will use. The Encryption tab enables you to encrypt or unencrypt your offline files.

The Network tab enables you to choose to automatically work on any locally cached offline files when your connection to the network is slow. You can also choose how often to check for a slow network connection.

When a shared resource is made available on a network, you can control the cache settings for that shared resource. This enables you to determine how remote users access files inside each of your shares. The cache settings are defined on the computer on which the shared resource resides.

The Caching settings for shared folders are configured by clicking Advanced Sharing, on the Sharing tab of the folder’s Properties sheet. The options are as following:

• Only the files and programs that users specify will be available offline. This setting is the default and enables any files or programs in the share to be available offline to users but users must make the decision.

• All files and programs that users open from the share will be automatically available offline. This setting ensures that any files a user accesses from this share while online will be available offline.

• Optimized for performance. This check box enables the caching to take place in the background therefore helping to optimize network performance.

• Files or programs from the share will not be available offline. This setting disables caching from the share.

Presentation settings are options on your mobile PC that you can apply when giving a presentation. If you’ve ever had your display screen turn black during a presentation, you’ll appreciate that you can automatically turn off your screen saver every time that you give a presentation.

When presentation settings are turned on (often referred to as presentation mode), your mobile PC stays awake, and system notifications are turned off. You can also choose to turn off the screen saver, adjust the speaker volume, and change your desktop background image. Your settings are automatically saved and applied every time that you give a presentation, unless you manually turn them off.

You can turn on presentation settings by using one of the following methods:

To turn presentation settings on or off for the current monitor or projector that the mobile PC is connected to, follow these steps:

Presentation settings automatically turn off when you disconnect your mobile PC from a network projector or additional monitor, and when you shut down or log off from your mobile PC. Or, you can manually turn off presentation settings:

To customize presentation settings, follow these steps:

To keep the display on during presentations, follow these steps:

To prevent the mobile PC from going to sleep during presentations, follow these steps:

Windows SideShow is a new technology in Windows Vista that supports a secondary screen on your mobile PC. By viewing the second monitor or display, you can run Windows Media Player or check e-mail whether your laptop is on, off, or in Sleep mode. Windows SideShow is available in Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate.

Windows SideShow uses gadgets, which are convenient mini programs, to extend information from your computer to other devices. Gadgets can run on a Windows SideShow–compatible device and update that device with information from your computer. Using a gadget, you can view information from your computer regardless of whether your mobile PC is on, off, or in the Sleep power state, which can save you both time and battery life.

To configure Windows SideShow, open the Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound, and click Windows SideShow, where you can turn gadgets on or off for each of your devices. From the Control Panel, you can also set your computer to wake periodically (such as every hour) so that all gadgets that are turned on can update your devices with the latest information.

Windows SideShow–compatible devices can take many forms. Hardware manufacturers are already including secondary displays in their designs for mobile PCs and devices such as keyboards, mobile phones, and remote controls.

A Tablet PC is a fully functioning compact PC. Different from most desktop computers, Tablet PCs tools are available to make handwritten notes and sketches. The tools include the following:

All Tablet PCs have several hardware buttons for common tasks, which can be programmed as needed. In addition, you can program the digital pen by assigning key commands or actions to simple pen gestures called flicks. The Handwriting Recognition Personalization Tool enables you to tailor recognition results to your own personal handwriting style. Finally, Windows Touch Technology provides support for touchscreens, including accessing context menus and accessing small components with your finger.

To configure a Tablet PC, you use the Tablet PC Settings tool, which is found under Mobile PC in the Control Panel. The tabs shown in the Tablet PC Setting tool are as follows:

Stanek, William R., Introducing Microsoft Windows Vista (Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 2006).

Tulloch, Mitch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, Ralph Ramos, and the Windows Vista Team, Windows Vista Resource Kit (Pro. Resource Kit) (Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 2007).