Microsoft pushing Vistas green appeal

One of the less talked-about changes with Windows Vista is its environmental impact. But with energy prices rising and growing concern over climate change, more and more organizations' are starting to look for ways to save power.

The biggest environmental problem with computers has always been people leaving them on all the time, rather than shutting them down when they aren�t in use. That�s likely because the often slow wait for a computer to start-up is a daily annoyance, unlike getting higher power bills.

Vista introduces several new features designed to make people more likely to avoid wasting energy in this way:

� There�s a new �Sleep� mode which replaces the old �Standby� option. It allows your computer to start working again quickly but (as with the old Windows hibernation option) stores information on disk rather than in memory.

In theory at least, a computer can go into Sleep mode and stop drawing power, but when you need to use it again, you don�t have to go through the hassle of starting-up your machine again.

� Unless the user has specifically changed the settings, Vista computers left idle for a certain time will go into Sleep mode rather than run a screensaver.

� A new technology called SuperFetch means programs which you actively use (such as a word processor) get priority over background programs (such as anti-virus scanners) when it comes to allocating memory. This means that when your computer comes out of Sleep mode, the programs you need run straight away.

� The settings for �idle detection� have been changed so that if your computer comes out of Sleep mode automatically (either by somebody controlling it over a network, or for scheduled tasks such as a virus scan), it goes back into Sleep mode just two minutes after it�s finished what it was doing.

� Network managers in businesses or other organisations can control the power settings on computers centrally rather than having to physically adjust every machine.

Acccording to Microsoft, a typical computer with a flat-screen monitor that runs Vista would be $55.63 a year cheaper to run if its user put it into Sleep mode whenever they weren�t using it. From an environmental standpoint, that would save half a ton of carbon dioxide emissions each year � about 10% of that produced by an average car.

Put another way, it would take an acre of forest to �soak up� the extra emissions produced by six people leaving their computer on all the time.

That�s important to many businesses and government agencies which want to save the environment and save cash too. IT managers at the London Underground (the subway system in the British capital) say one of the reasons they�ve put their system on Vista is that they can remotely put any computers not being used into Sleep mode, safe in the knowledge that the user won�t lose any information.

They estimate this could save them $80 to $100 a year for each machine (the figure may be bigger than Microsoft�s claims because of higher energy prices in the UK), which will mean savings of around a million dollars over the lifespan of their existing computers.

John Lister is a freelance writer from Manchester, England. After graduating from a professionally-accredited journalism degree course in 1998, he spent six years running the press office for Plain English Campaign, a pressure group working to make public information clearer. He now works full-time writing articles and producing summaries of newspaper reports.

His technology-writing experience includes daily articles for the Infopackets technology newsletter. His other specialties include the professional wrestling industry, about which he has written two books.