Re: Power Management GPO?

Jeremy,

I'm guessing you are right and that the creation of the power scheme is a
user setting and not in scope or whatever when running as System. That
would explain it.

CMDLINES.TXT isn't an option that I can see since all my systems are
deployed. I need to implement this in a production environment and we buy
our computers with the OS preinstalled.

I tried changine the extension to .cmd but that didn't make any difference
that I could tell.

When I create the scheme as admin I can see the scheme when logged in as a
user. If you look back in this thread there is an ADM template that Florian
Frommherz provided that sets the active power scheme. I haven't figured out
exactly how to set that to pick a different power scheme yet.

The other problem I see is that setting the password required on resume
feature is user dependant and you have to have rights to do it. So when I
run the command, "powercfg /g off /option:resumepassword", as a user I get
an access denied message.

It occurse to me though, that all of these settings must be picked up by the
user from the default user profile when the user's profile is created.
Isn't there some way to modify the default user profile? Of course, this
doesn't solve the problem for existing users. I wonder where in the
registry these settings are stored, couldn't the registry be modified in the
GPO for each user?

Thanks,
Linn

"Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:062C8D5C-4919-4434-9F7F-3446F930FC4B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My guess is that the two that are working are per-machine settings, but
the power scheme settings are per-user and it doesn't like the system
context I suppose. When I tested I was only using a single line that
turned hiberation off. So I guess if you ran the scheduled task as a real
user then it would work. I told you power management settings were
evil....

When I've done this sort of thing during the past I have always scripted
it during the post setup autologon, or using CMDLINES.TXT in an unattended
setup, so it has been running as the built-in administrator account. The
benefit of running during CMDLINES is also that it modified the default
user profile too.

On the .bat vs .cmd thing, if it is running on Windows XP you are always
better off using .cmd since this shell has much more flexibility in
scripting and everything doesn't always work with .bat. But in your case
I don't think this is a problem, but change it anyway just to be sure.

When you create the new scheme running as an Admin, is the scheme
subsequently available to normal users?

"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e7KQC3rpHHA.1244@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok, further testing. I added a couple lines to the batch file to create
a log file for my batch file. This showes that my batch file is being
processed but my commands aren't taking I guess. Here's my batch file:

echo Running power.bat >> c:\powerlog.txt
date /t >> c:\powerlog.txt
time /t >> c:\powerlog.txt

powercfg /c cmw
powercfg /s cmw
powercfg /x cmw /monitor-timeout-ac 25 /disk-timeout-ac 0
/standby-timeout-ac 0 /monitor-timeout-dc 10 /disk-timeout-dc 10
/standby-timeout-dc 15
powercfg /h off
powercfg /g off /option:resumepassword

I can see that the last two lines are working, hibernation and password
on returning from standby are getting turned off. But the creation of my
power scheme is not working for some reason when run from the schedule.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Linn

"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eHJa2crpHHA.4212@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
It's the wierdest thing, when I run the task manually, (right-click, run
now), nothing happens. If I run the batch file manually it works fine.
The task doesn't seem to be working although I can't see any problem
with it's properties. Maybe I should post this in the scripting group?

Just as a test I created a new task to run the same batch file using the
Scheduled Tasks control panel and that doesn't work either. Could it be
that batch files, files with a *.bat extention, don't work with
scheduled tasts?

Thanks,
Linn

"Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EC7AC87A-F890-4B59-BDC8-B2E97C4D3916@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well the 0 exit code is just what the batch file is returning, rather
than the powercfg exit code. I'm not sure where to point you because
when I set the batch file to run at system startup it worked well.
What happens when you run the task manually from task scheduler
(right-click, run now)?

"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OBh%23$LJpHHA.3772@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for the suggestions Jeremy. I followed your advice and setup a
batch file using powercfg to set all the power settings the way I'd
like them to be. Ran the batch file as Administrator and it worked
fine. Next I created a scheduled task to run my batch file as "system"
and to run at system start up. That worked as well.

So then I created a GPO that runs a computer startup script. The
script checks for the existance of my batch file in the root of the
target PC. If the batch file does not exist it creates it and then
creates a task to run it at startup using the "system" account.

All of this works, however, when the computer starts the batch file
isn't run... well, it looks like it's running but it does not set the
power settings. When I look at the task scheduler log file it shows
the following entries:

"Power Setup.job" (power.bat)
Started 6/1/2007 4:04:15 PM
"Power Setup.job" (power.bat)
Finished 6/1/2007 4:04:16 PM
Result: The task completed with an exit code of (0).
[ ***** Most recent entry is above this line ***** ]

I'm guessing the exit code of (0) is a good exit code as opposed to an
error exit code. I'm not sure what's happening now. Any suggestions?
Or should I post this question on a different news group?

Thanks much,
Linn

"Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:41FDEE4D-EE9C-4195-9E9A-9E2CE683AE85@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I think I have a fix for this. I created a scheduled task that runs
as SYSTEM and executes the .cmd file I created which has the following
line in it:

powercfg /hibernate off

I turned hibernate on, then waited for the schedule and it worked, so
SYSTEM does have the ability to change power settings. So I changed
the schedule to "when the system starts", turned hibernate on and
rebooted and it worked.

So, long story short, I am guessing you could create a startup script
that creates the scheduled task (using schtaks.exe) to run a second
script that sets the power configuration. Then it would take two
reboots, but it would still work. A bit kludgy I suppose....

Anyhoo, good luck.

Cheers,
Jeremy.

"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u5UQgpxnHHA.4196@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have been working this afternoon on a script for just this purpose.
I have a power.bat file now that when run by the administrator sets
the power the way I want it. Of course that only works for the
adminstrator.

I created a GPO and put the batch file in first as a startup script
and when that didn't work I tried it as a logon script. At first it
didn't work, then I linked it to the domain administrator's OU and
then it worked for that account. I tried liking it to the OU of my
test user but that didn't work.

Next I added my test user to the administrator's group of the local
computer, now it works. Looks to me like it's a rights issue at
this point. A normal user can't change the power settings so a logon
script like this won't work either. Or am I missing something here?

Thanks much,
Linn

Ok, now that I've linked my GPO to the administrators and services
"Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5D7771AA-D92D-4A3D-9437-344807222726@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well using a flag file on the hard disk might be easier then. This
way you can do it with a simple .cmd file.

Run powercfg from the command line with a /? and you will be able
to build the commands you want the set up a .cmd file as follows:

-->8 snip here
@ECHO OFF
IF NOT EXIST %TEMP%\powerscript.flg (
powercfg command 1
powercfg command 2
powercfg command n
ECHO finished > %TEMP%\powerscript.flg
)
-->8 snip here

The first line turns of local echoing of commands to the screen to
make the output cleaner.
The second line is the test to see if the flag file exists
The next three commands represent you doing your powercfg stuff
The next command writes the flag file so that next time the script
runs, it wont meet the condition so will skip all the powercfg
stuff
The close bracket closes off the IF condition. It is very
important that it be on a line on its own in the script.

I can't remember if all power setting are per machine, but if some
are per machine and some are per user then you could split it up
into 2 scripts, one startup script and one logon script. The use
of the %TEMP% environment variable would mean that if you ran it as
a logon script that the powecfg commands would be run per user who
logged onto the machine.

HTH

Cheers,
Jeremy,



"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23T4KAswnHHA.3460@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes, that's what I'm finding. I have everything setup, I can see
by running gpresult on the client computer that the GPO's are
being applied. They just aren't taking effect.

With EZ-GPO there is a small client executable that needs to be
installed. I can't even get that to work. I can install it
manually but not using a GPO, even though gpresult shows it as
being applied. I don't know what the secret is to that.

I'm not familiar with POWERCFG but I'll look into it. I'm also
not very experienced at writing scripts but I'll take a shot at
it. An example would sure be helpful, especially the bit about
the registry flag.

Thanks much,
Linn

"Jeremy" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A3D93BAF-3E24-44DB-B910-BCFBB6B0F1F1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Power management settings are evil. Like a few other settings it
appears that the registry is just where they get stored. From my
fiddling it appears that you can change the registry setting but
the GUI setting doesn't change until next startup, or sometimes
even ever. It appears that the power management API probably
retrieves the configured values from here during system startup
then stores them in memory or somewhere else because now matter
how much manual modification I did, I could never get settings to
stick, so here is my suggestion:

Use POWERCFG. If you simply want to set the settings once, write
a script that makes the changes and the drops in a registry flag
to indicate the state so that it doesn't keep running all the
time. If you want to set the settings for different times of the
day as suggested by another poster, then put in a scheduled task
running as SYSTEM that changes the settings based on the time of
day. Adding the scheduled task can also be scripted in a startup
script using schtaks.exe.

Good luck.
Cheers,
Jeremy.
"Linn Kubler" <lkubler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ejtsGPLnHHA.4516@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi All,

I'm trying to figure out how to set the power settings of the
computers in my organization. They are almost all Windows XP
Pros, a couple Windows 2000 Pro but I'm not going to worry about
them right now.

I know that Microsoft set this up so that a standard User does
not have rights to change the power settings and so far I have
not been able to find a way to set them globally.

I have been looking at EZ GPO from Terranovum but it only gets
me part way there. There are a couple settings that it doesn't
address. What do you folks do, how do you handle this... or
don't you?

EZ GPO sets the time outs for the User monitor timeout, System
standby timeout and Hibernation timeout, but what about the
other settings? Hard Disk timeout, Prompt for password when
computer resumes from standby, When I press the power button on
my computer and Hibernate enable/disable? How can I go about
setting those options?

Oh, this is an active domain network with Windows 2003 Server
domain controllers.

Thanks in advance,
Linn



















.