14 DAY TRIAL // While Microsoft has touted Windows Vista's new power management features, Gartner claims that the same effects can be achieved with Windows XP in concert with behavior changes. "Vista's power management improvements are useful but limited. Similar energy consumption cuts can be made with XP-based systems by changing users' behaviors -- like shutting down PCs after hours," said Simon Mingay, Gartner Research VP.
On 21 March 2007, Microsoft made public a study commissioned to PC Pro Labs indicating that the new power management features introduced in Windows Vista can contribute to cutting by $90 the energy bill per PC per year in a corporate environment. According to Microsoft, Windows Vista would also have a major impact on reducing carbon dioxide emissions by no less than 45 tonnes per year for 200 desktops.
Gartner believes that placing Windows Vista at the center of environmental benefits is not the right strategy. "Gartner estimates that PCs account for more than 0.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions and represent a significant proportion of office electricity bills. Vista improves power management performance, and provides more aggressive default settings and better management control over them. Also, Vista applications can't override power management events. Though Vista's power management technology is helpful, a comprehensive energy-saving program requires addressing people and process issues as well," Mingay commented.
According to Gartner, user education and motivation, together with the optimization of the current power management features delivered by Windows XP can easily result in similar savings in electricity and carbon dioxide emissions. Microsoft thinks otherwise.
"While education may be the key for many consumers, businesses are forced to balance cost and environmental impact against their own security and operations requirements," stated Dean DeWhitt, director of Microsoft's Windows Kernel team. "New power management features in Windows Vista are designed to help them with this challenge."