Video Transcript

Hi, this is Dale from the CurrentWare team.

Today I’m going to show you how to get started with implementing your first PC power management policies with enPowerManager. 

This video will cover the key features of enPowerManager, including:

• PC power activity reports
• Power scheduler
• Advanced power policies
• Shutdown options
• And Power commands

For the best results, set enPowerManager to PC mode rather than User mode. This will give you access to the most features. 

This demo will be using version 7.0.1 so there may be small differences if you are using another version.

Before watching this video you should already have the CurrentWare web console set up, the CurrentWare Clients installed on the computers you would like to manage, and your users or computers placed in their own policy groups.

For more information on installing CurrentWare and setting up your policy groups, please visit the knowledge base at CurrentWare.com/Support.

PC Power Reports

To start, let’s take a look at what reports are available in enPowerManager.

• The User Logon History report allows you to check user login history with timestamps and duration of each logon period.
• The Computer startup history report tracks PC power events such as when your users startup, shutdown, sleep, or hibernate their computers
• Finally, the CurrentWare client connectivity report lists information about your endpoints including computer name, client connection times, IP addresses, MAC addresses, CurrentWare client version, and the users that have logged in to that computer

Let’s run a report on my Accounting group by selecting that group in the PCs and Users selection window.

Next, configure your sorting options and reporting period.

Hitting the Run report button will generate the report.

You can save or print your report by using the icons in the top right corner.

If you’d like to save space in your database or limit the amount of historical data you keep in enPowerManager, simply:

• open the Delete Data tool,
• select the computers or users you want to delete data for,
• select the period you’d like to delete
• Then press the “delete data” button

PC Power Scheduler

The next feature is the power scheduler. This feature allows you to automate PC power events on a set schedule.

Each schedule is specific to the group you have selected in the Power Scheduler window. In this case, I’ll pick my Accounting group.

Let’s set up a new Schedule.

The types of schedules you can set up are:

• Shutdown
• Standby
• Hibernate
• Restart
• And Boot

The Boot function requires you to configure Wake-On-LAN settings on your computers; this function may be disabled by default and is only possible with computers connected over a local area network. For more details please visit the CurrentWare knowledge base at CurrentWare.com/Support/

Next, set the frequency you’d like the schedule to run.

For shutdown events it’s recommended that you check the “only shutdown if computer is idle” checkbox, then set how long the computer must be idle for before the computer shuts down. This will help prevent unwanted shutdowns if your user is still on the computer at the scheduled time.

Hit add schedule and make sure to enable the power scheduler.

Advanced Power Policies

Next is the Advanced Power Policies. These policies are used to control various power settings of your computers, with added controls for laptops based on whether they are plugged in or running on batteries.

Select the group you would like to manage, then activate the Enable Policies toggle.

Here are the advanced power policies available:

• Turning off the monitor after a set time
• Turning off Hard disks after a set time
• Triggering a System Standby after a set time
• Triggering a System Hibernate after a set time
• And whether or not the computer requires a password to be entered on wakeup.

Once all of your parameters are set, press the “Apply” button

Shutdown Options

The next feature is the shutdown options. 

From here you can choose to enable an optional warning message before enPowerManager shuts down a computer. 

You can also provide a timer before their computer shuts down to give your user time to finish their task and save their work.

Hit Apply to save your changes.

We’ll skip over the Boot Options for this video; you’ll only need to change these if needed for troubleshooting purposes. 

PC Power Commands

Next, let’s look at the power commands. These allow you to shutdown, standy, hibernate, restart, and boot your computers on-demand.

Here’s how:

• Check a checkbox next to the computer you’d like to send a power command to
• Press Power Commands, then your desired power command

Conclusion

That’s it for today’s video. If you have any questions you can reach out to the CurrentWare support team at CurrentWare.com/Contact/ or you can get more information from our self-serve knowledge base at CurrentWare.com/Support/