powerdown energy management software

Power saving that works with the operating system

In an ideal world all computer users would turn off their computers when they finish using them. Unfortunately many people do leave computers running when they are not being used.

Powerdown complements the operating system’s own power saving features to allow administrators to impose power saving settings on every computer, something that is not currently supported by Windows even in fully managed environments. It optimises the system power settings to be more aggressive than those provided by Windows and causes idle computers to be placed in a low-power state after only a few minutes of inactivity.

Automated shutdown and restart

Network administrators can create policies which define a schedule for computers to automatically shut themselves down, ensuring that computers are turned off or placed into a low power state when not needed. Computers in a low-power state can be automatically restarted, either for automated system management activities (e.g. nightly backups) or simply to ensure that they are ready for use when required.

Administrators can create as many policies as needed allowing the energy saving settings of individual computers or groups of computers to be controlled according to their specific needs.

Works with standalone computers

Competing power management software solutions require computers to be permanently connected to the network in order to benefit from energy savings, scheduled shutdowns and automatic restarts. Powerdown is a client-only solution and does not require a server or additional network hardware to control shutdowns and restarts. This unique design allows Powerdown to operate fully on computers that are not connected to the network.

Policy editing tool

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Policy editing tool

Simple configuration of client computers

Policies are made available from a central location such as a network drive or web server. Each computer regularly updates itself from these policies and this allows Powerdown to achieve power savings even if the computer becomes disconnected from the network. It also allows administrators to change the behaviour and configuration of Powerdown clients simply by modifying the policy file(s) on the network. The Powerdown Policy Editor, supplied with the software, makes it easy for administrators to modify existing policies and create new ones.

 
Shutdown warning displayed to users

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Shutdown warning displayed to users

Advance warning of system shutdown

Powerdown displays a highly visible warning to notify users that the computer is about to shutdown or enter a low power state giving users sufficient time to save any open files. Powerdown automatically postpones the shutdown for a short time if it detects that a user is actively using the computer at the time.

 

No-touch automated deployment

Powerdown is easy to install and has been designed specifically for rapid deployment through Active Directory, allowing no-touch automated installation and configuration on client computers. Powerdown is also easy to install in Windows workgroup environments and on standalone machines.

Using Group Policy to configure Powerdown

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Management of the Powerdown software through Active Directory with Group Policy administrative templates

Integration with existing Windows management features

When used in a managed Windows domain, Powerdown can be configured through Group Policy using standard Windows management tools.