Overview of Power Management in Windows 2000 (244806)

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Windows 2000 supports ACPI-compliant BIOS versions, and also some BIOS versions based on APM and Plug and Play designs.

ACPI is an open industry specification that defines a flexible and extensible hardware interface for the motherboard. Software designers use this specification to integrate power-management features throughout a computer system, including hardware, the operating system, and programs. This integration enables Windows 2000 to determine which programs are active and handle all of the power-management resources for computer subsystems and peripherals.

APM consists of one or more layers of software that support power management in computers with power-manageable hardware. APM defines the hardware-independent software interface between hardware-specific power-management software and an operating system power-management policy driver. It masks the details of the hardware, allowing higher-level software to use APM without any knowledge of the hardware interface.

For information about which ACPI-based BIOS versions are ACPI-compliant, check the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for Windows 2000.

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Or, check the ACPI BIOS lists at the following Microsoft Web site: