Screenshots: Battery life in Vista

Early testers are finding Vista laptops get less battery life than the same machines running Windows XP. As with past versions, users can choose to maximize battery life at the expense of performance, maximize performance or opt for a balanced approach.

To maximize battery life, Microsoft recommends using the Vista Basic theme, which turns off fancy graphics, such as the Flip3D navigation feature shown here.

This window pops up when you click to check the battery's level in Vista, and gives you the choice of changing settings.