Before the launch of Windows Vista there were many speculations and reports regarding the system requirements of the operating system and not the least the increased power consumption because of the increased load. Increased load with a laptop would mean a higher power consumption and shorter battery time, something that actually seems to be a big problem with Windows Vista. According to a report published at ZD Net the PC builder HP claims to have spent a lot of time tweaking Windows Vista to make it works satisfactory with its laptops.
“Reports that Vista was an energy hog started to surface during beta testing last year. At the time, Microsoft said many of the problems would be cleared up by the time the operating system launched. Of course, this isn’t a new issue when it comes to operating system changeovers, said Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC. “When you look at a new operating system, battery life tends to be worse. When Windows XP came out, that was true, and when Windows 98 came out, that was true.””
As expected, it’s the graphical user interface Aero Glass that’s in the center of attention and the fact is that a Vista computer without Aero Glass consumes less than an equivalent XP computer, but with the new interface, the roles are reversed.
Windows Vista’s “power-saving” profile also inactivates Aero Glass to save power. But both HP and Lenovo are using specially made power saving profiles with its laptops to improve the battery time even further.
