[Osiris]

I bought a Toshiba Notebook soon after Windows Vista was released and was wondering about the huge battery drain whenever I was using the Notebook without a power source. The battery drain is apparently caused by the Aero theme and the power settings for the wireless adapter. I was not even sure at the beginning if I was running Windows Aero or just a different interface but soon found out that the Aero interface, one of the few new things in Windows Vista, was active and draining battery life like crazy. I decided to disable the Aero interface because I could not see the use of it after all. Sure, it offers some nice looking effects but that is not the main purpose that I’m using the notebook after all.
To disable the Aero theme do the following:

Right-click on your desktop and select Personalize from the menu. Choose Windows Color and Appearance and click on Open Classic Appearance Properties for more color options. Select a different theme from the list (non Aero) and click on Apply.

The second battery drainer could be a wrong power setting. If you left-click the little battery icon in the system tray you see which power setting is currently used. I suggest you select the power saver option if the notebook is not connected to a power source. All other settings drain the battery pretty fast.

Extend Windows Vista Battery Live for Notebooks

[Osiris]

I have written an article a few days ago about the problem that the Vista Aero theme was consuming a lot of power which reduced battery life on notebooks by a measurable amount. One of my suggestions back then was to disable the Aero theme completely which is not really practicable if you want to work with Aero whenever the notebook is connected to a power source.
The software Vista Laptop Battery Saver (which I found at Windows Vista Tweaks) automates the process for us. The memory resident software waits in the background and reacts when the notebook is changing into battery mode. It will disable the Windows Vista Aero theme completely which means that you can work longer in battery mode.
It will also recognize when a power source is connected to the notebook and turn on the Aero theme automatically. This is probably the best solution if you want to work with Aero when you have a power source connected to your notebook. I decided to get rid of Aero completely and work with a custom theme which does not consume that much power.


Windows Vista Notebook Battery Saver