I am going to be installing BOINC on an entire computer lab soon but there is a major problem that I have run into. The computers go to standby after 20 minutes. If I change the setting for one user as soon as another user logs in it reverts back to the 20 minute window. I have attempted to modify the registry but I accomplished nothing.

They are fairly new Dells running the OS that was preloaded. It seems to me that Dell has changed a setting somewhere that it messing up the works.


I have two questions:

Will an active BOINC client (running as a service) prevent a computer from going to standby?

Does anyone know how to modify the registry, change a setting, a small third party tweak, or even a group policy object that will change this setting to never go to standby for all users?



I would just like to note that is would be impossible to change the setting under every user because each computer could be logged into by any of close to 1000 users. Also that the computer seems to use the settings of the last person who logged in when it has no user logged in. I hope there is an easy registry edit I would be able perform on the computers.

I really need help with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Here is your clue...

>>If I change the setting for one user as soon as another user logs in it reverts back to the 20 minute window.

Hmm...you mentioned policy editing. That would be my next place to look.
If they are logging in with "teacher" or "student" generic names, you could edit the setting while logged in as those names.

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> Hmm...you mentioned policy editing. That would be my next place to look.
> If they are logging in with "teacher" or "student" generic names, you could
> edit the setting while logged in as those names.

Every student and teacher has their own unique login name. It would be imposible to to change it for everyone.

I have looked through the policy list once and did not see anything to do with power management. The computers will have SP2 installed through the SUS server in the coming week and I have heard that SP2 has more features and it could possibly be included in that.

What I am really looking for is someone who knows the registry well enough to tell me the edit I need to change the power management default settings.

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I would suggest you try:

In sp2 there is powercfg.exe
This article describes how to use Powercfg.exe, a utility that was introduced in Windows Server 2003 family. You can use this tool to access the settings from the Power Options tool in Control Panel and to set these settings from a command line (if you are an administrator). Powercfg.exe has additional functionality to extend some settings that are not available in Control Panel. You cannot use this tool to configure all of the settings in the Power Options tool; you can only configure the settings that are described in this article.
Powercfg.exe is designed to work on the Windows Server 2003 family. It may work on other operating systems, such as Windows 2000; however, Microsoft does not guarantee that it will work on other operating systems and does not support its use. If you use this tool on other operating systems, use it at your own risk. To view the parameters that you can use with Powercfg.exe, type powercfg /? at a command prompt or search the Help files for "powercfg."

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=324347

or

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBL/tip5500/rh5594.htm

Power Schemes Do Not Save in Windows XP

http://support.gateway.com/s/issues/1-708807845.shtml

You can make yourself a new power scheme and call it with this utility
I would put this program in the C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersStart MenuProgramsStartup folder with the proper parameters (or HKLMrun)

registry edits are long but the key words are PowerCfg and GlobalPowerPolicy.

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Thank you for the information on the powercfg.exe file. I have made a short and sweet batch file that will run at startup and select the proper settings. I was looking for information like this but I was getting nowhere.

Thank you for the help.

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