Copyright: Notebook BatteryInfo Help Version 1.2.0.10 Copyright © 2005, 2006 by Thomas Michel


Introduction

See also:  License     What is new?

Notebook BatteryInfo enhance the capabilities of the operating system in displaying the notebook battery values (i. e. remaining battery capacity) in the Windows Taskbar without adding annoying icons to the Taskbar Icon Area (also known as Traybar). The red marked area is a component of Notebook BatteryInfo which is inserted into the Windows Shell. The component is called Taskbar BatteryInfo.

 Taskbar BatteryInfo on a Windows 2000 System

 Taskbar BatteryInfo on a Windows XP System

 Taskbar BatteryInfo on a Windows XP System with Themes

Notebook BatteryInfo is also able to hide the operating system Battery icon. Since Notebook BatteryInfo has a more expressive battery info, there is no need for the Operating System Taskbar icon anymore.

 Normal Operating System Taskbar Icon

Furthermore Notebook BatteryInfo is able to display most of the information of the notebook battery like designed battery capacity, Battery ID and so on.

Notebook BatteryInfo is special designed for notebooks. It will work even on desktop PC but the most desktop PC will not have a battery as power supply. So Notebook BatteryInfo is more useful for using with notebook PCs.

The elements of Taskbar BatteryInfo

Taskbar BatteryInfo contains two elements. The first element is the Battery Symbol and the second element is the Energy Icon.

Both elements are colored marked in the picture above..

The Energy Icon can have three different states:

 System is Battery powered

 AC mode, no battery is in system or the battery will not be charged (because it is completely charged)

 AC mode, the battery is currently charging


License
Notebook BatteryInfo License

Except where otherwise noted, all of the documentation and Software included in this Software package is copyrighted by Thomas Michel.

Copyright (C) 2005-2006 Thomas Michel. All rights reserved.

This software is provided "as-is," without any express or implied warranty. In no event shall the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software. Use at your own risk!

Permission is granted free of charge, provided that the following conditions are met:

1. The Software is used in a home or educational environment. Usage in a commercial environment is not permitted, except a written agreement by the author is granted.

2. All redistributions of the Software Package must contain the complete Setup package. It is not permitted to extract files for distributing in other Software packages.

3. Any redistribution must be free of charge. It is not permitted to demand any fee for the redistribution of this Software package.

4. The origin of this software must not be misrepresented. Deleting the copyright markings and/or origin of this software is not permitted.

5. There is no obligation of the author to make changes or bug fixes in this software.

Thomas Michel

http://www.batteryinfo.de.vu


What is new?

Notebook BatteryInfo will be enhanced and bugfixed continuously so it is recommended to use the latest version. The latest version can be found at the Notebook BatteryInfo Homepage.

Changes:

Version 1.2.0.20

•	Bugfix: Color settings where not used

•	Bugfix: PowerIcon Background when using Windows XP styles was not erased correctly

Version 1.2.0.19

•	Bugfix: Problem with restricted user accounts.

•	Bugfix: Wrong display of the value "Battery capabilities" on tab "Battery system information"

Version 1.2.0.18

•	Bugfix: Operating System Battery Icon is re-displayed if capacity warning level was reached.

•	Bugfix: Several problems with restricted user accounts.

•	Bugfix: Wrong display of remaining time and charging/discharging rate on systems not supporting this feature.

•	Bugfix: Taskbar BatteryInfo displayed a wrong remaining time for a short time (10-20s) if the Notebook changed the power state from AC to DC mode.

•	Bugfix: Taskbar BatteryInfo Context menu item "Settings..." selection results in an error message.

Version 1.2.0.17

•	Added: The multi language support is complete implemented. Currently English an German is available.

•	Added: The "Taskbar BatteryInfo" symbol displays now 3 states:

- AC Power and battery is charging

- AC Power and the battery is not charging / or the battery is not present

- Battery power

Version 1.1.0.14

•	Bugfix: The "Taskbar BatteryInfo" tooltip was not displayed properly in all situations.

•	Bugfix: Some values of the "Battery System Information" Tab where not displayed correctly.

Version 1.1.0.13

•	Added: Settings for changing color of the Taskbar Battery Info symbol

•	Added: Settings Tab in the Notebook BatteryInfo program

•	Added: Display of the battery information

•	Added: Display of the current battery values

•	Added: Context help in Notebook Batteryinfo program

•	Added: Help File

Version 1.0.0.1

•	Initial version of Notebook BatteryInfo


Helpfile Version 1.2.0.10

This Helpfile has the Version number 1.2.0.10. This special topic is only for better version management of the different helpfile versions.


Overview

The General Information Tab is only to show the Notebook BatteryInfo license text. There is no other function in this tab. This Tab ensures only that the license text is present even if the Software is not installed with the Notebook BatteryInfo Setup.


Overview

The Battery System Information Tab displays all system specific information of the battery. There are two different groups of information.

The first group of information is the General Battery Information group. This group contains information like Battery Device Name, Battery Manufacturer, Battery Chemistry and a lot of information more. Some battery information are not mandatory. So it may be possible that some values are not made available by the Notebook or battery.

The second group is the Electrical Battery Information group. This group contains only three values. The values Designed Capacity and Full charged Capacity  are values provided by the system. The value Wear level is a calculated value (Wear Level = Full charged Capacity / Designed Capacity *100%). The wear level may be change from charging cycle to charging. The reason is the internal electronic of the battery only "estimates" the full charged Capacity more or less good.


Overview

The Tab Current Battery values displays the electrical values and states of the Notebook battery. The displayed values are refreshed every second.

The general battery values are Power State, Remaining time, Capacity and Capacity in percent. The Remaining time is only displayed if the notebook use the battery as power supply. If the notebook is charging or uses AC power no Remaining time will dispayed.

The electric battery values are Rate, Voltage and Current. If the Rate and Current are negative the battery is used to supply the notebook with power. If the Rate and the Current is positive the battery is charging. The Rate and Current is zero if the battery is completely charged, or charging is disabled in the system.


Overview

To configure the Taskbar BatteryInfo it is possible to setup the followed Taskbar BatteryInfo display settings:

Setup/Remove of the Taskbar BatteryInfo from the system

Show/Hide the Taskbar BatteryInfo from display

Show Taskbar BatteryInfo at Windows startup

This settings can be changed every time. The saved changes are processed immediately if Taskbar BatteryInfo is displayed.


Setup/Remove of the Taskbar BatteryInfo
Setup / Remove of the Taskbar BatteryInfo from the system

The Setup / Remove button is disabled by default. This Setup / Remove option is only used during BatteryInfo development for debugging and testing of the Taskbar BatteryInfo.


Show/Hide Taskbar BatteryInfo
Show / Hide the Taskbar Battery Info from display

With the Show / Hide button it is possible to display of the Taskbar BatteryInfo or end the visiblity of the Taskbar BatteryInfo. It is even possible to hide the Taskbar BattertyInfo by right clicking on the Taskbar BatteryInfo and than selecting the Hide Taskbar BatteryInfo option.

To display the Taskbar Battery Info it is only possible to use the Show option, or the automatic display of Taskbar Battery info during system startup.


Show Taskbar BatteryInfo at Windows startup

If this option is enabled the Taskbar BatteryInfo will displayed automatically at windows startup. This option can be changed every time. It is recommended to enable this option to have the Taskbar BatteryInfo at windows startup.


Overview
Overview of TaskbarInfo settings

To change the behaviour of Taskbar BatteryInfo the TaskbarInfo settings Tab contains a lot settings to customize the display of the Taskbar Symbol. If the change on the Taskbar Info settings Tab will be saved, the Apply Changes Button must pressed. Only after pressing this button all changes will be saved and the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol will be set up with the changed settings.

Battery color settings

Battery Display options

Information if mouse is over the Battery Info symbol

Operating System Taskbar Icon


Battery color settings

In BatteryInfo it is possible to define the color settings of the Taskbar Battery info symbol. So it is possible to have a symbol matching to the color settings of the Windows Desktop. The followed color settings can be changed:

Battery remaining capacity color

The color of the remaining battery capacity. This color is used if the remaining capacity of the battery is larger than the critical value defined in the system power policy.

Battery critical capacity color

The color of the remaining battery capacity. This color is used if the remaining capacity of the battery is smaller than the critical value defined in the system power policy. This color should be a signal color to show the remaining battery capacity is very low.

Battery background color

The color of the  Taskbar Battery symbol not used by the Battery critical capacity color or  Battery remaining capacity color. The Battery background color is complete visible if the battery capacity is 0%.

Font color

This color is used if at least one Battery Display option is displayed in the Taskbar BatteryInfo battery symbol.


Battery Display options

It is possible to display different values in the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol. By default the remaining capacity in percent is displayed in the symbol. It is possible to display up to 3 different values in the symbol:

•	Capacity in percent

•	Remaining time

•	Current power consumption

It is possible to select more than one of this values or no value. In the case more than one value is selected the selected values will be displayed one after the other. The time when the display is changed can be defined in the Change display setting. The default time is 1s. If no value is selected, no value will be displayed in the Taskbar Battery Info symbol.


Information if mouse is over the BatteryInfo symbol

To display different information if the mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol (the large battery containing the remaining capacity) three settings are possible:

Display no information

No further additional information will be displayed if the mouse is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol.

Display standard tooltip

A tooltip will be shown. This tooltip contains the remaining time until the Notebooks battery is empty.

Display Infotext window

The Infotext window scrolls up and displays various kinds of system information like the current power consumption, the remaining akku time, the actual current and voltage of the battery.

The both time settings Information display delay and Information display duration are used if the setting Display standard tooltip or Display Infotext window is selected. If the setting Display no information is used the time setting does not have any effect.

The Information display delay time is the time span the mouse cursor must hover over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol until the tooltip or Infotext window will be displayed. If this time is set to 0s the tooltip or Infotext window will be displayed immediately.

The Information display duration time is the time span how long the tooltip or Infotext window is displayed. After this time span the tooltip or Infotext window will disappear by itself. If this setting is set to Always the tooltip or Infotext window will never disappear.


Operating System Taskbar Icon

Notebook BatteryInfo is able to hide the Operating System Taskbar Icon. For this operation it is necessary for Notebook BatteryInfo to have write access to the current power policy settings. Notebook BatteryInfo changes the display settings of the Operating System Taskbar Icon.

Since Notebook BatteryInfo changes this setting in the current power policy, it is not recommended to change this setting manually or with an other tool.

Notebook BatteryInfo does not need any access to the power policy settings to hide the Operating System Taskbar Icon.


If this check box is selected the Taskbar BatteryInfo will diplayed automatically if windows is started up.


The picture is intended to show what the Taskbar BatteryInfo is, and how it looks in the Taskbar.


Displays if the Taskbar BatteryInfo is displayed or not.


With this button Taskbar BatteryInfo can be set up or removed from the system. By default this feature can not be used. BatteryInfo will be complete set up during the installation process on the system.


Displays if the Taskbar BatteryInfo is set up correctly or not installed.


Showe or hides the Taskbar BatteryInfo display in the Taskbar.


The general information what Taskbar BatteryInfo is, and why it may be useful to use.


Updates the Taskbar BatteryInfo data if a newer version was detected. This feature can not be used by default. To update the Taskbar BatteryInfo the old version must be uninstalled and the new one must be installed.


Displays the Update status if the Taskbar BatteryInfo is out of date.


The capabilities of the battery.


The currently full charged battery capacity. This value may be lower than the "Designed capacity" if the battery has some wear.


The chemistry of the battery.


The number of charge/discharge cycles of the battery. This value is not supported on all batteries.


The designed capacity of the battery. This value is the maximum battery capacity if the battery does not have any wear.


The battery device name.


The manufacturers "low level" alert recommendation.


The battery manufacturers name. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The manufacture date of the battery. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The serial number of the battery. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The capabilities of the battery.


The currently full charged battery capacity. This value may be lower than the "Designed capacity" if the battery has some wear.


The chemistry of the battery.


The number of charge/discharge cycles of the battery. This value is not supported on all batteries.


The designed capacity of the battery. This value is the maximum battery capacity if the battery does not have any wear.


The battery device name.


The manufacturers "low level" alert recommendation.


The battery manufacturers name. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The manufacture date of the battery. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The serial number of the battery. This value us not supported by all batteries.


The technology of the battery. It is possible to have a rechargeable battery in the system or a non rechargeable battery (as secondary battery).


The current temperature of the battery. This value is not supported on all batteries.


The unique ID of the battery. The operating system used this ID for device identification.


The manufacturers "warning level" alert recommendation.


The battery wear level. During the usage of the batteries lifetime the battery will loose a part of the full charged capacity. A wear level of 0% indicates no wear level. A wear level of 50% would indicate the battery only has 50% of the designed capacity left for usage.


The technology of the battery. It is possible to have a rechargeable battery in the system or a non rechargeable battery (as secondary battery).


The current temperature of the battery. This value is not supported on all batteries.


The unique ID of the battery. The operating system used this ID for device identification.


The manufacturers "warning level" alert recommendation.


The battery wear level. During the usage of the batteries lifetime the battery will loose a part of the full charged capacity. A wear level of 0% indicates no wear level. A wear level of 50% would indicate the battery only has 50% of the designed capacity left for usage.


Enables the display of the Context Help.


Shows the BatteryInfo Online Help.


Exits the application BatteryInfo.


If the changes are applied the Taskbar BatteryInfo will use the new settings.


If this option is checked the current battery capacity in percent is displayed in the Taskbar BatteryInfo.


Opens a color selection dialog for the currently selected color item.


Selects a color item what can be changed by pressing the Select color button.


If changing the color options the preview shows how the color changes will look like with Taskbar BatteryInfo.


If changing the color options the preview shows how the color changes will look like with Taskbar BatteryInfo.


The mouse cursor must hovered over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol for the specified time until the Tooltip or Infotext window will be displayed. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect.


The mouse cursor must hovered over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol for the specified time until the Tooltip or Infotext window will be displayed. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect.


If more than one Battery Display Options are selected it is useful to set up the time span when the next display option will be shown. If only one option is selected this time span does not have any effect.

By using the Up/Down Control the time span may be incremented or decremented.


If more than one Battery Display Option is selected it is useful to set up the time span when the next Display option will be shown. If only one option is selected this time span does not have any effect.


The mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol the Tooltip or Infotext window is displayed. The Display time specifies the time span how long the Tooltip or Infotext window well be displayed. If the time span elapsed the Tooltip or Infotext window disappears by it self. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect.


The mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol the Tooltip or Infotext window is displayed. The Display time specifies the time span how long the Tooltip or Infotext window well be displayed. If the time span elapsed the Tooltip or Infotext window disappears by it self. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect. By using the Up/Down Control the time span may be incremented or decremented.


The Infotext window will be displayed if the mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol. The Infotext window contains a lot of information about the current battery state (rate, current, voltage, ...).


No information will be displayed if the mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol.


If the option is checked the current power consumption is displayed in the Taskbar BatteryInfo.


Sets the default predefined values. This option is intended to set all values to the initial settings back.


The mouse cursor must hovered over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol for the specified time until the Tooltip or Infotext window will be displayed. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect. By using the Up/Down Control the time span may be incremented or decremented.


The mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol the Tooltip or Infotext window is displayed. The Display time specifies the time span how long the Tooltip or Infotext window well be displayed. If the time span elapsed the Tooltip or Infotext window disappears by it self. If no information is selected the delay time does not have any effect. By using the Up/Down Control the time span may be incremented or decremented.


If more than one Battery Display Option is selected it is useful to set up the time span when the next Display option will be shown. If only one option is selected this time span does not have any effect.


To disable the OS battery symbol this option must be checked.


If the option is checked the remaining time until the battery is empty is displayed in the Taskbar BatteryInfo.


A small information window (Tooltip) will be displayed if the mouse cursor is over the Taskbar BatteryInfo symbol.


Displays the current battery capacity.


Displays the current battery capacity in percent.


Displays the actual current of the battery. A positive current indicates the battery is charging. A negative current indicates the battery is discharging.


Displays if the battery is connected to AC power, and if the battery is charging.


Displays the current rate of the battery. A positive rate indicates the battery is charging. A negative rate indicates the battery is discharging.


Displays the remaining time until the battery is empty.


Displays the current battery capacity.


Displays the current battery capacity in percent.


Displays the actual current of the battery. A positive current indicates the battery is charging. A negative current indicates the battery is discharging.


Displays if the battery is connected to AC power, and if the battery is charging.


Displays the current rate of the battery. A positive rate indicates the battery is charging. A negative rate indicates the battery is discharging.


Displays the remaining time until the battery is empty.


Displays the current voltage of the battery.


Displays the current voltage of the battery.


The license agreement of BatteryInfo. This agreement is obligatory for each user!