SaveIT!

Automated PC power up/down scheduling

Once installed the SaveIT! Application will generally run silently in your system tray as the white icon with the red circle. Clicking on the Icon will open the application to allow control of the power scheduling of your PC.
In the figure above, the PC will switch itself on during the red periods and off during the black periods.
You can have as many on/off periods as you like.
Use a left click drag on the time bars to create an "off" period and additionally hold down the Ctrl Key to create an "On" period.
The PC can be made to hibernate or standby, either way the PC will wake up in the same state as you left it.
You will be warned of an impending shut-down which can be cancelled.
The PC can be woken up before the scheduled "On" period by touching the power button on the PC case.
Pre-configured options can be loaded and changes saved.
In a Corporate environment you may wish all PCs to use the same central configuration file,
forcing computer operation to working hours only.
The "Delayed Off" button gives a quick way to switch off the PC after a delay,
for example you could start off a big download or DVD burning and walk away,
knowing the PC will switch itself off after say, an hour.
The "Power Options" button is a convenient link to the Windows Control Panel Power Options (below).

Installation

Preparation

This Software will work with any APM/ACPI compliant PC, to check, you can use the Windows Device Manager, open Device Manager and select "View devices by connection". Either APM or ACPI is one of the first devices in the list, if these do not appear you may need to enable the APM/ACPI functions in the BIOS, in particular the "Wake on Alarm" feature. see your computer's user manual for details. The hibernate function will also need to be enabled from the "power Options" on the Windows "Control Panel" (above) or click "Power Options" on SaveIT to get to the same place quickly.

Software Installation

The CD should start the installation program on insertion, if not, double click Setup.exe on the CD, you MUST be logged on with Administrator rights for the installation to proceed without error. Follow the installer instructions. At the end of the installation process allow SaveIT to run, use the default login of "user" (without the quotes!) the configuration dialogue should appear. Clicking "Show Details" will have a similar effect but certain options will be greyed out until logged in. Ensure the "Start with Windows" box is checked, and click "Save".

Configuration

Login with the default login of "user" and then change this if desired by filling in the relevant boxes and clicking "Change". The login will time-out 5 minutes of user inactivity.

Configuring for Multiple PCs with a common configuration

If you are going to run many computers with the same configuration file, the configuration file should be placed where it is visible on the network by the other computers, specify the folder path to the configuration file in the "config" box. If no path is defined then the default is to save the file in the SaveIT installation folder e.g. "C:\Program Files\SaveIT\", the path could be for example, "N:\SaveItConfigs\config1.db" where "N:" is a network drive visible by all other computers in the organisation. Alternately a web reference can be used for a common filename i.e.
http://mywebsite/SaveitConfigs/OfficeHours.db
Click "Save" once the file path or URL has been specified.

Single PC or stand-alone Configuration

Specify the folder path to the configuration file in the "config" box. If no path is defined then the default is to save the file in the SaveIT installation folder e.g. "C:\Program Files\SaveIT\" normally this would be the best option so just specify the file name e.g "MyConfig.db" and click "Save".

Checking APM enabled

In the "Delayed off action" dropdown select "Standby" then "Hibernate" and then select "Shutdown". If no errors are reported these options should be available to you. If errors are reported, see Installation/Preparation (above) to resolve the problems. In some cases your computer hardware may not support some or all of the options, any PC built after 1996 and running windows 2000 or later should be OK.

Configuring the Switching Schedule

Looking at the screen shot above you will see red bars on a black background, on either side of a 24 hour timeline. The red areas indicate when the PC should be On and the Black areas where it will be "Off". By "Off" I mean either Hibernating or in Standby. To create or extend a red "On" period press the Ctrl key and the left click on the bar and move the mouse, the area will extend following the mouse pointer. To change an "off" period, do the same, but without holding down the Ctrl key. You will also see a small red dot on the timeline representing the current time. Specify the required schedule for weekdays and weekend days. You have as many On and Off periods as you like in a day but the minimum period length is 15 minutes. The "Scheduled Off" dropdown specifies whether standby or hibernate should be used. When the PC is is "Off" it can be re-started before the scheduled time by hitting the power button, or sometimes the power button on the keyboard. The time to the next shut-down will count down on the SaveIT screen, the PC will beep every minute for the last 10 minutes and every second in the last 10 seconds of operation to give plenty of warning. The shutdown can be aborted by clicking "Cancel Shutdown".

Standby or Hibernate?

The choice is up to you, in both cases on resumption the PC will be in the same state as you left it, all open programs will still be open. You may be required to type in your windows password, if windows is so configured (see above). During hibernation the system context information RAM contents etc. are copied to a file on you disk drive and then the system is shutdown. Hibernation has the advantage that if power is removed from the PC the data will not be lost. In Standby some power is left on to preserve the RAM contents and hardware configuration, this has the advantage that start-up is fast typically five seconds, but if power is lost, so will be your unsaved data! Standby typically uses a few watts of power but Hibernate next-to nothing on a modern PC. I would recommend hibernation.

Delayed Off function

This provides a simple way to switch your PC off "some time later", for example, if you set off a DVD burning session or some other lengthy process and want to leave it to finish un-attended and then switch off, this is the tool to use. The "Test" button is there primarily to amaze your friends, clicking this will switch off your PC in the specified manner, and then come back to life one minute later. Note: if Shutdown is selected the PC will only restart by hitting the power button.

PC Power Consumption box

This is used to specify the approximate power consumption of the PC in On, Hibernate and Standby modes. This is used only to tot-up the amount of power used by the PC and potentially saved by SaveIT. This is only accurate if the PC is left to power on and off automatically, any unscheduled starting or shutting down of the PC will not be reflected in the Power Saved statistic. Similary, the power used is only counted when SaveIT is running.

Starting With Windows

The "Start with Windows" box should be checked for normal operation of SaveIT, this ensures that the program is always running even after a power off restart. The program will collapse to a System Tray icon after one minute of operation, if the configuration details are not on screen.