I have a Dell Inspiron 510m laptop. The Dell quickset is extremely important for your machine, but the UI is worth absolutely nothing. You cannot change the default power schemes, which is OK, because you can create your own. But can you control the processor speed, which is perhaps the single most important option of them all concerning battery life? No, you cannot. Dell makes the choice for you. Instead of ever opening the UI, I propose changing the values for the default power schemes (Maximum Battery (Quickset) and Maximum Performance (Quickset)) in the registry database.
They are located at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell Computer Corporation\QuickSetPowerSchemes
I changed mine to something like
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell Computer Corporation\QuickSetPowerSchemes\0] "Name"="Maximum Battery (QuickSet)" "NIC_Enabled"=dword:00000001 "WIRE_Enabled"=dword:00000001 "AC_HardDriveTimeout"=dword:00000005 this is always good \ "AC_LCDTimeout"=dword:0000000f 15m before screen blank | "AC_LCDBrightness"=dword:00000007 |_ "AC_Suspend"=dword:00000014 time to suspend | | "AC_Hibernate"=dword:00000019 hibernate time FROM suspend time | | "AC_CPUSpeed"=dword:00000064 (didn't touch this) / | "BAT_HarddriveTimeout"=dword:00000003 \ | "BAT_LCDTimeout"=dword:0000000a | settings when "BAT_LCDBrightness"=dword:00000005 |__ ... and when on AC power "BAT_Suspend"=dword:00000019 | on battery "BAT_Hibernate"=dword:00000005 | "BAT_CPUSpeed"=dword:00000032 / "Index"="235" \ "MSIndex"="5" |-- didn't touch "Defined"=dword:00000001 / these "WlessAC_Enabled"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell Computer Corporation\QuickSetPowerSchemes\1] "Name"="Maximum Performance (QuickSet)" "NIC_Enabled"=dword:00000001 "WIRE_Enabled"=dword:00000001 "AC_HardDriveTimeout"=dword:00000005 "AC_LCDTimeout"=dword:0000000f "AC_LCDBrightness"=dword:00000007 "AC_Suspend"=dword:00000000 "AC_Hibernate"=dword:00000000 "AC_CPUSpeed"=dword:00000064 "BAT_HarddriveTimeout"=dword:0000000f "BAT_LCDTimeout"=dword:0000000a "BAT_LCDBrightness"=dword:00000005 "BAT_Suspend"=dword:00000014 "BAT_Hibernate"=dword:00000005 "BAT_CPUSpeed"=dword:00000064 "Index"="236" "MSIndex"="4" "Defined"=dword:00000001 "WlessAC_Enabled"=dword:00000001
Also, you could take a look at
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Dell Computer Corporation\QuickSet] "ShowLOMControl"=dword:00000001 "ShowTrayIcon"=dword:00000001 "IsIntelLOM"=dword:00000001 "TvTunerSupport"=dword:00000000 "ShowWirelessWiz"=dword:00000000 "LimUser"=dword:00000000 "ShowSlider"=dword:00000000 "ShowWizard"=dword:00000000 "VolumeDlgX"=dword:000002df "VolumeDlgY"=dword:00000288 "BrightnessDlgX"=dword:00000000 "BrightnessDlgY"=dword:00000000 "SetNormalOnInstall"=dword:00000000 "DeleteDupSchemes"=dword:00000000 <- set this to 1 to delete all "MonitorDlgX"=dword:00000000 power schemes and replace with "MonitorDlgY"=dword:00000000 the quickset ones (I did it) "DlgDisablerVOL"=dword:00000001 "DlgDisablerBRG"=dword:00000000 "DlgDisablerRAD"=dword:00000000 "OnBegin"=dword:00000001 "OnFirstUIBefore"=dword:00000001 "OnMoving"=dword:00000001 "OnMoved"=dword:00000001 "OnFirstUIAfter"=dword:00000001 "OnEnd"=dword:00000001 "DisplayCloseDlg"=dword:00000000 "RelaunchReboot"=dword:00000001 "DlgLaunchPlayMediaDirect"=dword:00000001