Configure Vista Power Options with Group Policy

You probably know about the new Vista Power Options settings. If not, they are accessed easily enough by opening the Control Panel and then choosing Hardware and Sound | Power Options. And even easier way is to simply type 'power' from Vista's search box.

And speaking of, here's a question that came up in class when discussing Vista's new power options and the Vista Mobility Center:

Can I use Group Policy to configure Power Options?

Yes. Vista ships with 800 new Group Policy settings, and several of these can govern Power Behavior for your entire network.

Here's where to set the Power Options:

Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | Power Management

You can figure it out from there. All of the button settings, hard disk settings, sleep settings, and so on that can be configured for an individual system using the Control Panel can be set for groups of computers1 using these Administrative settings.

If you're curious as to why this all works under Vista (and there's no particular reason you should be; trust me, it won't won't convey any social status in mixed company), it's because previous Windows versions stored power configurations as binary values, which Group Policy doesn't affect. Now, Power Options can be set using the .xml-based .admx files that define the Administrative Template settings under Windows Vista.

1- given that you're working in a domain and using either Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate.