perris

If you want to change the battery levels your computer sleeps, shuts down or hibernates it was pretty easy to find in xp, a bit convoluted in vista, needs a tutorial and here it is;

I like my computer to stay active right up to almost battery fail, to me that's about 2 percent, pick your own level a bit lower then default to extend your usable battery life

Click your battery icon in your task bar and hit "more power options", if the icon isn't available launch power options form control panel

Panel on the right go to "change when the computer sleeps, in the applet that opens hit "change advanced power settings"

scroll down to the very bottom and you'll see "battery"

click the plus sign on "critical battery action" I personally would go to hibernate, you might want to shut down but I don't recommend that if you want to continue where you left off

I also wouldn't choose "sleep" unless your percentages were higher then my 2 percent

in the pull down after "plugged in" obviously "do nothing" unless you suspect a short of some sort (which I have never seen)

there's a plus for your "low battery level" as well, I would change that from the default of 25 percent to something less, mine reads 10 percent but if your battery is weak you want to make that a bit higher so you have time to finish your work

then go to the "critical battery" pull down and that's the big change, as I said my battery is stable and healthy so I lowered that to 2 percent, when my battery begins to age I'll raise that to around 5 percent till I get a new battery

on "low battery notification" you should probably leave this on though it's annoying and you will get a critical battery warning so the "low battery warning" for me is redundant

"low battery action" I would hit the scroll down and "do nothing", have all your action at the critical battery level

anyone else want to add something feel free, if a moderator wants to edit my tutorial you are welcome to make whatever edits or suggestions as you see fit

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binoyxj

Good info for the novice laptop users.

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joshih

I just changed from XP to vista so this is very useful, thanks