Windows XP’s default setting for Standby mode is kind of frustrating. Even if the computer is part of a Windows Domain, Pc’s go to standby after a timeout by default. I have done the following to solve this problem:
1. Microsoft supplies a tool called powercfg to handle power profiles, however powercfg only works with administrative privileges by default, changing the registry permissions is a must if you want to do it with user privileges (I’ve used SetACL which is not part of windows):
%windir%\system32\SetACL.exe -on "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Controls Folder\PowerCfg" -ot reg -actn ace -ace "n:%computername%\users;p:full"
%windir%\system32\SetACL.exe -on "HKU\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\PowerCfg" -ot reg -actn ace -ace "n:%computername%\users;p:full"
2. to add a new profile, and configure it, i run the following under every user:
powercfg /C efag-pwr-nb
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /monitor-timeout-ac 20
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /monitor-timeout-dc 15
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /disk-timeout-ac 30
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /disk-timeout-dc 10
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /standby-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /standby-timeout-dc 0
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /hibernate-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /hibernate-timeout-dc 0
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /processor-throttle-ac NONE
powercfg /X efag-pwr-nb /processor-throttle-dc ADAPTIVE
powercfg /S efag-pwr-nb
powercfg /G ON /OPTION BATTERYICON
powercfg /G ON /OPTION MULTIBATTERY
powercfg /G ON /OPTION RESUMEPASSWORD
powercfg /G OFF /OPTION WAKEONRING
powercfg /G OFF /OPTION VIDEODIM