Technical Features and Requirements
PowerMAN is supported on Windows XP SP2 and later. The software uses a small agent
which may be quickly deployed to each workstation:
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- Simple deployment via either standard MSI or single-EXE file. Less than 1MB on-disk required
- Deploy via GPO/AD, ZEN, SCCM, SMS, XCOPY or similar
- ADM/ADMX supplied - Configure via Group Policy, SCCM, ZEN, or even direct Registry settings
- Define separate policies per-user, per-computer, group or time of day
- Configure timeouts for logout, sleep, hibernate, and power-off
- Schedule wake-up, sleep, hibernate, restart or power-off
- Distinct policies for when nobody is logged on
- Optional opt-out by user and computer. Permit authorised users to self opt-in/out to power management
- Enforce policies, prevent unauthorised changes and override problem applications preventing PC ‘insomnia’
- Protect critical applications, files or times
- Detailed power management Event Log
- Optional historic reporting features require around 1KB of bandwidth/PC/day
- Optional live reporting feature requires a further 3-4KB bandwidth/PC/day (depending on usage)
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Optional on-premise reporting
The optional on-premise, PowerMAN Enterprise Server, reporting software is highly scalable and supports
a minimum of 100,000 client computers. The software does not normally require a dedicated server and
will work in a virtualised environment. The current server has the following technical requirements:
- Windows Server 2008 or later with minimum 4GB of RAM. Larger installations may require more RAM.
- Approximately 1MB of data storage per client computer per year. e.g. 20,000 PCs will require approximately 20GB of storage.
- Microsoft® SQL Server Standard Edition 2008 or later. Smaller deployments (<10,000 workstations) may also use the free SQL Express Edition
We also offer a range of services to help deploy, integrate, and customise PowerMAN in your organisation.
Note: Previous editions of PowerMAN Enterprise Server supported Windows Server 2003 / SQL Server 2005. Please contact technical support if you require this.
Better than Windows alone
PowerMAN leads the market because it significantly enhances the features available from Windows alone. Did you know that:
- Windows XP and earlier do not provide any built-in, centrally configured, power management.
- Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10 only provide a single timeout-based power policy to be defined for all users on a particular computer. This policy applies at all times and can be changed by any user and remains in effect even when the user logs off. The policy may be easily circumvented by rogue applications causing ‘PC Insomnia’
PowerMAN offers many more comprehensive features beyond those present in Windows alone.
The following table highlights the key features of PowerMAN compared to Windows XP,
Windows Vista, Windows 7/8/10 and the Energy Star EZ GPO tool:
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Power Management Feature
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Win XP
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Win Vista/7/8.x/10.0
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EZ GPO
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PowerMAN 5.4
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Historic Reporting per PC/site
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No
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No
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No
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Comprehensive
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Export reports to Excel/CSV
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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SQL access to per-minute data
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Live Reporting per PC/Site
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Per-site workstation availability report
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Workstation status dashboard
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Central power management configuration
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No
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Limited
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Limited
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Comprehensive
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Sleep/Hibernate (on-idle)
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Multiple/day
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Shutdown / Power-off (on-idle)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Logout (on-idle)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Sleep/Hibernate (on-schedule)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Shutdown / Power-off (on-schedule)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Maintenance window (Wake-up + stay-awake)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Wake-up (on schedule)
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No
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No
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No
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Multiple/day
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Wake-up (remote / ad-hoc)
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By Administrator
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No
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No
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No
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via WakeMyPC
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By User
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No
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No
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No
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via WakeMyPC
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Multiple policies per day/user/computer/group
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Separate policies per user / group
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Yes
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Separate policies per PC / group
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No
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Via GPO
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Yes
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Yes
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Protect power settings from unauthorised changes
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No
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Via GPO
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No
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Yes
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Distinct policy for no-user present
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Enforce policy (anti-'Insomnia')
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Configure power/sleep/lid button behaviours
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No
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No
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Yes
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Yes
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Opt-out / exclusion features
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By file/program
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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By time
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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User driven opt-out (optional)
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Detailed Power Management Event Log
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No
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No
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No
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Yes
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Uniform solution for all client OS
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N/A
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N/A
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No
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Yes
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Full support for Windows® Vista/7/8/10
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N/A
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N/A
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No
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Yes
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Regular updates available
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N/A
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N/A
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No
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Yes
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Fully supported via email and telephone
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N/A
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N/A
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No
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Yes
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