Power Management settings via Registry

Can someone tell me what keys in the registry that I need to edit to change
the power management settings for the whole machine, not just the current
user. The machines would all be winXP pro w/ sp2 installed. I would like
to be able to push out registry settings that tell the macine when to go to
standby. I am wanting to do this so that I can configure other tasks (virus
scanning, auto-updating) to run after the users leave for the day and before
the machines go to standby. I am using novell zenworks to push out these
settings, if anyone has any other ideas of how to do this I would be glad to
hear. Thanks.

Nate

Hi,

According to your description, my understanding of this issue is: You want
to use a GPO or change the registry keys to modify settings in Power
Management. If I have misunderstood your concern, please feel free to let
me know.

Based on my research, this can be done through a policy using the
powercfg.exe tool. This utility is introduced in Windows Server 2003
family. However, I have tested it on Windows XP SP2 and on 2000 sp3 and it
appeared to work fine.

Documentation for this tool can be found at

324347 How to Use Powercfg.exe in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=324347

Here is how we created this policy:

1. Copy the powercfg.exe and the batch file to the netlogon share
Here is an example of a batch file
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
@echo off
net use x: \\domain.com\netlogon
x:
powercfg.exe /change "always on" /monitor-timeout-ac 0
powercfg.exe /SETACTIVE "always on"
c:
net use x: /delete
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

2. Create a group policy that will be applied by the computer and the user

3. Add the path to the netlogon share and the batch file that you have
created as a logon script.

4. Go to the user rights section of the policy under the computer
configuration and give the users the right to "shut down the system".

5. Go the registry section under computer\windows settings\security
settings section of the policy and give the users full control to the
following keys. Please set this to propagate to the sub folders.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ControlsFolder\
PowerCfg

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\PowerCfg

Once the policy applies the setting will take effect the second time the
user logs in. The first time it will fail because the other rights and
permissions have not taken effect.

Now this gives the users the rights to change this setting which the
customer did not like even though it would get reset everytime they logged
on.

So as an additional part of the policy you can use the file system
permissions section to deny the users the right to the file
%systemroot\system32\powercfg.cpl. This will not let them open the Control
Panel extension to view or change the power settings even though they have
the actual power to change the settings.

If anything is unclear or you need further assistance on this issue, please
feel free to let me know.

You can refer to the examples as above. Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Vincent Xu
Microsoft Online Partner Support

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--------------------
>>From: "Nate" <n8issogr8.RemoveThis@news.postalias>
>>Subject: Power Management settings via Registry
>>Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 20:02:03 -0600
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>>
>>Can someone tell me what keys in the registry that I need to edit to
change
>>the power management settings for the whole machine, not just the current
>>user. The machines would all be winXP pro w/ sp2 installed. I would
like
>>to be able to push out registry settings that tell the macine when to go
to
>>standby. I am wanting to do this so that I can configure other tasks
(virus
>>scanning, auto-updating) to run after the users leave for the day and
before
>>the machines go to standby. I am using novell zenworks to push out these
>>settings, if anyone has any other ideas of how to do this I would be glad
to
>>hear. Thanks.
>>
>>Nate
>>
>>