More than just 2 power plans in the battery tray icon popup

I have 4 different power plans and want to switch between them.
Sadly, Windows 7 only displays the two last used power plans in the systray popup.
In the mobility center it only shows the three predefined power plans but not the custom added ones.
So each time I have to open the whole power setting window to switch between them.

Is there a way, maybe a registry hack, to show 3, 4 or even more power plans in the systray icon?

With google I only found one site which addresses the same issue:
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=83&t=760618&s=?
The thread starter coded a little program which does exactly what I want, sadly it isn't available any longer and it's a separate program. I would prefer to not need any additional programs.

 

No, there are no hacks to display more than two plans.

 

This bugs me a lot too. I thought they were going to address that before the public RC?

 

Damn, that's really stupid, this decision to only show two power plans and don't let the user decide what he wants displayed.
Well, then I'll have to try to get the other program somehow.

 

Well you can "combine" plans.. like when the system is plug-in or not you can choose in the power option. That give you 4 plans right there.

 

Have you tried using battery care to switch the plans automatically when power state changes?

 

The problem is, I need 3 for AC (max. power, max. battery and dynamic) and at least 2 for DC (max power, max battery)
And it would be much easier with 3 power plans in the systray popup.
Windows also has 3 default power plans, so why did they set the limitation to 2?
Sometimes I really think some MS people who are responsible for a specific feature don't ever use this feature themselves.

No, but this also doesn't help much because I need to change it manually. I could also use RMClock or other programs, but I thought I could keep everything simple and use Win 7's in-built management, sadly it's quite cumbersome to use with this limitation.

 

why do you need max power? it's the same as dynamic, except that it doesn't "cool down" when not used.

 

Playing games isn't that great with dynamic.
Some games I play sometimes, like 'Soldat', don't tax the CPU all the time as other games do, this means the CPU clocks down and with it other hardware. This results in worse network response times and this causes lags and a bad ping. Only solution is to keep the CPU in high performance all the time.
Similar things can happen with other games or other programs, too, high performance is just more reliable if I want 'High Performance'

 

After searching a bit further I found another tool which addresses this issue:
http://www.powerplan7.com/



It's an option, but I prefer a better way which does not require an additional application.


I also don't like the look of the tool

 

I do think they should add all three power plans to the popup, even though like 90% of users probably don't care. It's just one of those annoyances that doesn't seem like it takes a lot of time to fix. I wonder why they changed it in the first place.

 

doesn't happen normally... cpu is even when clocked down so much higher speed than the network that it should never affect any network latency.

what you could do, is configure your network card to not turn down it's performance, independent on the cpu. that should fix it.

 

because people automatically use the "high performance" plan when they see it, even while it's of no use, and more of harm actually, than "balanced".

 

I know that this could be a solution, but this would only increase heat when I don't want/need it.
So manually switching between the power options is the best and easiest option.

Also does the dynamic switching has a small latency before it increases the clock speed, sometimes, when playing games which allow the CPU to clock down, this latency is just too long.
Because most games just stress the CPU, whatever you currently do, this isn't an issue, but not every game wastes that much energy.
Also dynamic isn't that great if you work on some CPU intensive applications like Photoshop. When drawing with the pen I just notice the short latency.

And before I tweak the registry to reduce the latency and do other not needed modifications I just want to switch manually between those three modes. Everything else isn't a solution and does not work!

Maybe. Still could MS add an option which allows us to check what power plans we want displayed in the popup. The default setting can still be the two power plans, but then we could show a third or fourth power plan easily.

 

this would not create heat as you would only configure your network card do not go into powersave mode.

dynamic switching has no noticeable latency, everything else is a myth.

you can't feel, see, notice, ever, that latency. except if some other devices throttle down for some stupid reason (might be your pen, which might go to energysaving, too.. the screen, not the pen, hehe).

switching the modes isn't the solution. fixing the issues is the solution.

 

That is why you have power saver and balance. Well in reality these are just name, you can make PowerSaver High performance yourself, nothing is stopping you. So you can do that on battery you save max power, and plug-in max power. And for balance, it's dynamic.

I think your CPU is powerful enougth to ignore any latency. This is liek saying, having my system in HighPerformance allows me to have 1 or 10 points higher than Balance in 3DMark 06... 10 points even 100 points is not even visible no mater what you do., unless the game already runs at 1-5 fps.. which that is simply another story.

Not having to switch modes is even easier.

That sounds like a driver issue. Your CPU is not supposed to be spike when you use you pen, but when you render things with your image editor.

As anyone, they will please the most people, and not that <1% of the world that has specific needs. If you want, you can make a software that does does what you need, like the menu application above, which I dont get what you don't like about it. It does exactly what you want.

 

just to add, they pleased the majority of people that now, on win7, the computer is more quiet, and the battery lasts longer, as people can't easily turn on "high performance" anymore, thinking it does anything useful except wasting power.

 

Ok, to make it simple:
Preventing a device to enter power saving mode causes more power consumption which causes more heat, this can be a good Watt if we talk about the LAN card.
That's why only an idiot would force the network card or any other device to run in a higher performance mode if it's not needed at all.
The power plan high performance also forces this, but there it's much easier to switch back to dynamic or power saving.

Pen, what do you guys think I do with a pen while using PS? Moving the cursor around, or what? No, I draw! What does this mean, yes it means, depending on the size and shape the brush has it stresses the CPU, the brush, not my tablet pen. And it's my subjective feeling that, if I use CPU intensive brush sizes I get a more natural experience when I run it in high performance mode. In XP this lag was more noticeable, now in Win 7 I almost don't notice it in PS, still, forcing the computer to not shut down any device and keeping the CPU in a higher clock by selecting a different power plan is the most comfortable way to solve any issues.


Guys, I'm not an idiot. I also tried different things. And I notice a noticeable difference in some special situations between high performance and balancing mode. And for these special situations I just want to switch between different power plans.


But back to topic. I said I needed at least 3, more are always better because I also created a few custom plans which fit my needs for other special situations, like note taking, which is a power saving mode which dims the screen brightness after 20 seconds and has other things optimized.
It's just a pain if I have to open the whole settings to change a power plan, that's why I asked here if someone knows a way to add more power plans to the pop up.

I don't want to know that you're fine with dynamic, I'm not. Not because of wrong drivers, wrong system or whatever. I just want to force my computer to do the things I want it to do.


I posted two programs which do what I want. And if there is no other solution I'll use them. Still, if there's a way to just enable a third mode in the popup then this would be a much better solution than using any third party program.

As already said, they can show 2 power plans by default. But why don't allow they a 'more advanced' user to show more than those 2 power plans?
Because Vista had 3, Win 7 now only 2, I thought it may be a simple registry key which tells Windows how many power plans shall be displayed, and I still think that it's just a simple key.

 

nobody sais you're an idiot. (edit: you're a tablet user, dude! i'm one, too, we all are better than the rest, we can't be idiots )
but you focus on the wrong things. just because allonpower fixes your issue doesn't mean that's the solution.

you should enable always on for your network device to test if that fixes your gaming issue to pin down if that's the problem causing device. and if it is, find out how to fix it (driver update? changing some driver setting? maybe just stay on full power for that device?).

we try to fix your problem. "balanced mode only" is not your problem.


and yes, being able to chose a third option would hide that problem for you. but you prefer to get it fixed, don't you?



and the rest about photoshop. yes, in xp the power options could reduce performance, and yes, it could result in laggy behaviour. but this is not true anymore on a modern os, be it vista, be it win7. so get used to just notice an old placebo from days much older than your tablet (namely back to 2001).

balanced should work always perfect. if it doesn't, find out what's the problem and fix it.

 

And all I want to tell you: If I select the power profile to high performance or set my network card to full power, that's the same.
But selecting high performance is easier.
If I change the network settings, then they will be changed for both dynamic and max. battery, whereas I only want them in rare situations.
So in the end, with changing the network settings, which would probably solve my problem, I would reduce battery live, get a louder fan and hotter PC.

So changing to high performance does the same, just faster, easier and temporarily, so that's the much better solution!

And this with high performance is just an example why I need at least 3 or even more.
At the moment I have 4.
Max Power (everything on, useful for both AC and DC)
Dynamic (the default which I use when connected to AC)
Note Taking (power saving + fast dim display + fast display turn off, when taking notes)
Reading (power saving + no dim display + slow display turn off)

 

I have a solution for you!
Desktop icons! You can have a set of shortcuts that change power option for you.

Here is a tutorial:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-a-shortcut-or-hotkey-to-switch-power-plans/

What do you think?

 

you just don't want to get it, right?

 

thanks man, that's a great option.

no, sorry.
Why should I make a permanent change (changing the power mode of the LAN card) if I can make a much more power friendly and easier temporarily change (power panel)

And you don't want to understand that I just want a way to easily switch between three or more power plans, just as GoodBytes showed me.

 

what you don't get is that your laptop has a bug. fixing it would remove ANY need to ever change your power plan AT ALL.

now what is more easy, to feel intelligent and geeky by switching manually? or by finding what causes trouble, remove the problem, and then never have to think again?

i told you to TEST IT OUT by disabling powersaving on the network card. TEST IT OUT to find if that causes your game lags. and if it does, fiddle with the network settings, update / downgrade their drivers, retest. but don't just fall back, accept it as a (wrong) fact, and then cry about needing more power plans.

you're just running away from the problem, hiding yourself.


and it would by a big chance not even cost much power really to disable powersaving on the network card.


and yes, i don't want to understand that you want to blame it on others, who have taken away your so-needed power plans, instead of you noticing, that you have the blame, as you're the only one with a problem. microsoft doesn't have to add a third profile just for you. you have to fix your 2 profiles to work. thats the solution.


and i know i don't sound nice. i'm sorry about that. but people that are stuck with their thinking, that can't search for the real problem, are reason for most of the problems we live in, and are very hard to get out of their closed thinking. you are such a case in a simple example now, so you make me not sound nice.. as said, sorry about the tone.

hope you got the idea what i ment, what my idea was (and if you check my history, you know, i'm often the one posting into topics in the form of "do you really need to/want that?" and often, i'm right with, they haven't thought further)

 

or, to formulate it in one sentense:

your problem is not, that you can't chose a 3rd power plan, your problem is, your second power plan doesn't perform how it should.

 

Any power change implicates a latency, some hardware can switch faster (CPU) some slower (LAN adapter).
It's not a driver issue it's a hardware limitation.
Sure, preventing the lan adapter permanently to enter power saving mode would help, but that's not an option.
And I also do the same, forcing the LAN adapter to run in high power, just temporarily, by selecting high performance mode. That's what they are meant for, the power plans.

Also was the high performance just an example.
I also have one for reading and one for note taking. And as long as Win 7 is stupid and can't read my mind it just does not know that I currently read a book and don't want that the screen dims after a few seconds, so I have to tell Win it somehow, I do this with power plans.
Next time I take notes, again, somehow I have to tell Windows that I now want that it dims the screen in a few seconds.
Next time I want to play a game while on battery. Because this game stresses the CPU but runs fine on a lower clock speed I have to tell windows that it shall not increase the clock speed to save power.
The next moment I want to play a special lan game or do something else, somehow I have to tell windows to not shut down external hardware, this time I have to select the high performance mode. Or, you've brought me to this idea, I could set in the power plan to not shut down external hardware but keep the CPU in dynamic mode, I'll have to test if this works, too, then it's even better than running the CPU on high speed all the time, still, I want to switch between more than 2 power plans.
I hope you understand my needs better now.

And GoodBytes suggestion was perfect.
But each time I ran the shortcut the command prompt poped up for a second. To prevent this I created a small script:

Code:

Dim shell

    Set shell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
    shell.Run Chr(34) & "C:\Windows\System32\powercfg.exe" & Chr(34) & "-setactive " & WScript.Arguments(0), 0, false
    Set shell = Nothing

which I then call with a link and also send the GUID as an attribute, e.g.:

Code:

C:\changepowerprofile.vbs 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

Added as a new toolbar, it's just what I wanted, without any third party program:

 

i'm still not talking about disabling the lan power options to FIX the problem. but to VERIFY THAT THE LAN IS THE PROBLEM.

just to verify it, once, so we know it is the culprit. because normally, that means for every other system, there is NO percieved latency issue on "balanced", ever. seen enough gaming machines, where there really is no measurable loss at all.



but you prefer to run away from your real problem, and think this is way to go.. if you would fix it, you would never have to touch the power plans at all anymore.

now you hacked around thanks to goodbytes some funky solution that is still manual, and still just runs around your issue. is that really how you like to solve problems? there's dirt on the floor! there's a box over there, put it over the dirt so we can't see it

 

and you don't want to understand my primary problem.
If I don't have GoodBytes solution how shall Windows know that I read a book or take notes at the moment. This is the only question.
And the solution for this is, Power plans.


And I tried it with the LAN card and it seems to have the things improved a bit. But I think you don't understand that the difference always was a ping of max. 50ms vs. a little more jumping ping. Nothing major, not worth the higher power usage caused by this permanently change.

And one last time: I need more than 2 power plans, regardless how this particular game runs, it was a damn example. Win is dump, so I have to tell Win what I do at the moment, and it's fine if you can live with one power plan, I not. Not because something does not work properly but because I want different configurations when I do different things with my tablet. Win can't detect that I now want the display on all the time, and the next time I want that it shuts off very fast. That's just not possible at the moment.
But it seems you don't want to get the main problem I have.

 

well, my win isn't dump and works perfectly without me having to manually fiddle.

so your main problem stays: you don't get your windows working right, so you have to manually tell it each time what it does.

and i stay with the fact, that in any normal situation and environment, balanced works IDENTICAL if not better than max power. thanks to the reduced power draw, resulting reduced heat it actually gains the chance to clock higher, perform better.

you're right about the auto-shut-off of the screen. but for this, there's a button to turn it off.. and on win7, the screen turnoff should adapt actually.

and windows is quite smart, and doesn't turn of the screen while a fullscreen app like a game or movie is running, etc. so actually, you shouldn't have the need to fiddle with it just as well.


your main problem still is that balanced on your laptop sucks, and that should be fixed. max performance is never needed, that's why it's not there to chose for you. balanced can do EVERYTHING max performance does exactly as good, while saving power. if it can't, your laptop/drivers/configurations suck. not the power plan.

 

Props man, props. A real man making his own solution.

 

and props for running away from solving his real problem, by doing complicated other stuff instead ..

but other than that, still, yeah, props for actually getting it done. if nothing else, it's a great learning experience. and it has a coolness factor with it.

so yeah, props to that. rep++;

 

This is often overlooked but you can add a windows 7 gadget that works with power. I have found this simple and small one at http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=e0040b09-c1c8-4ad0-b2a4-a3efc8fa850f&bt=1&pl=1. I set it to always be on top and a opacity of 20% so it's pretty much invisible.

It sucks that Windows 7 doesn't allow you to see all your power schemes but this tool does the job for me.