Aerofoil 1.4 beta 2 released

Aerofoil the Vista Laptop Batter Saver (yes this is a googlebot search plug ;) ) now provides the following functionality and features:

• Enable/Disable Vista's Aero Glass on AC/battery


• Automatically switch Vista Power Plans on AC/battery to High performance/Power saver (fixed for languages other than English too)


• Automatically enable/disable Windows Sidebar on AC/Battery


• Vista hibernate/sleep would occasionally cause Aero Glass not to restart. Aerofoil will now attempt to restart Glass a number of times before giving up (usually this is successful in restarting). Note this is a Vista issue - not Aerofoil's (it just tries to work around it :) )


• Still just a 40KB executable.

The "Auto Power Plan" option is now set on by default (off in beta 1), but "Auto Sidebar" is not since I do not use Windows Sidebar and don't want it starting when I plug my notebook into the AC :)

Final 1.4 version available here

Download here
GPL source code

Local Telephone Number for your Royal Mail Sorting Office

Prescot Royal Mail Post Sorting Office - 0151 4266169 (note, it's now 2012 and I don't think this number is valid anymore, or if it is, nobody appears to pick up)

Why did I just give you that local postal office number? My father and me are fed up of spending a small fortune on peak time phone calls to a unanswered 0845 number for the post office to find whether they have one of our missing parcels.

If you want to find more local post sorting office numbers visit http://www.ufindus.com - this is where you'll find the above number and more (search for "What Service? Distribution" and "Whereabouts: {your wanted location}").

If this link goes down or has the numbers removed Google with combinations of words such as the local telephone code (e.g. "0151"), office region name (e.g. "Prescot"), the first line of the address (useful with the local telephone code in a search for finding full contact page details), "collect parcel", "royal mail", "postal depot", and "sorting office". Good luck!

If you find this useful please drop a comment below so we know we're not the only people annoyed with the Royal Mail's privatisation cut backs.

Aerofoil 1.4 beta Released

As mentioned in my last blog entry I'd be adding a new feature to Aerofoil to allow automatic profile switching between Vista's "High performance" and "Power saver" power plans when you run on AC or battery respectively.

This feature was added in 1.4 beta available as an optional switch in the right click context menu - "Auto Power Plan". You must have the two aforementioned power plans for it to work - these come with the English version of Vista as standard. (Sorry no Internationalisation yet so they must be the English names - please modify the source code if you want to improve or fix this).

Whilst I've not heard of any damage occurring from switching power plans more frequently, as usual use Aerofoil at your own risk - note the program's beta status, which means it may have bugs or small memory leaks.

Final 1.4 version available here

Download Aerofoil 1.4 beta with auto power profile - possibly some small bugs (source code).

or you may prefer...

Download Aerofoil 1.3 with no auto power profile option - very stable (source code).