The upcoming Windows 8 operating system will come with improved power management capabilities, according to a new blog post on Building Windows 8. According to Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), one reason for the emphasis on this front is due to the fact that two-thirds of all PCs are expected to be operating on batteries by the time Windows 8 ships next year.

Software itself can impact power usage, writes Pat Stamen, a program manager on the Microsoft Kernel team in the blog entry, which includes a photo of PC power supplies with built-in power measurement capability. To give a sense of the effort that Microsoft is putting in, Stamen talked about real reference laptops within Microsoft that are setup to measure various power scenarios across each new build of Windows 8.

In particular, the Windows 8 team focused on three goals in their quest for better battery life. This includes standardizing on consistent power management features across all platforms, engineering overall improved battery life, and applying a smartphone power model to PCs.

Stamen highlighted three specific innovations to improve power consumption. The Metro style application model, Stamen noted, has been designed from the ground-up to be power-friendly. Applications in the background are suspended so that they do not consume power when not in use. In addition, improvements to idle activity make Windows 8 significantly better in this department than Windows 7.

Finally, a new runtime device power management framework will allow devices to advertise their power management capabilities and integrate them through a special driver designed to enable optimal power management. Stamen sums it up this way: "We consider power management a core OS capability that is critical on any chip architecture and any PC form factor."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at CNET News
- check out this article at MSDN Blogs

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