Manual for Granola Personal for Windows
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The documentation is broken up into the following sections:
Installation Guide
For instructions on how to install Granola please see the download page.
Starting Granola
By default Granola will run automatically after you install it and every time Windows boots. If you ever want to start Granola manually there is a shortcut in the start menu inside the Granola folder.
System Requirements
- Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher
- Hardware support for Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). DVFS is available on most modern Intel and AMD processors, but may require being enabled in your computer's BIOS (read this page for information on known models). If DVFS is not available, or turned off, Granola will let you know when it attempts to start up for the first time.
Granola for Microsoft Windows Features
Granola has an informative screen to let you know how much energy, money, CO2 and percent of CPU energy you will save in a year, or the cumulative amounts you have already saved. Below is the main window of Granola:
In the above example, the yearly projected savings from running the program are shown. To give a better sense of what the savings numbers mean we present a list of things that are similar to your savings.
The button at the bottom of the window will take you to the website for the Granola Community. Tens of thousands of users all across the world have all made a commitment to reducing their environmental impact with Granola.
Once you close the main window of Granola, you can bring it back anytime by using the taskbar icon that you can see in the above picture (the left most icon). Double-clicking the icon will bring back the main window. A right or left-click of the taskbar icon will bring up a context menu giving you access to any of the Granola windows.
In order to see your cumulative savings, you will need to edit the settings. To edit your settings click on the gear icon to the top-right of the Granola window, next to the X. You may also click the taskbar icon and select Settings from the menu.
Granola Automatic Updates
Granola offers automatic updates. If there are any new updates, Granola will let you know by popping a notification bubble from its taskbar icon.
You can then initiate the update by clicking the taskbar icon and selecting "Install Updates."
A new notification bubble will show up to tell you the update is downloading.
The taskbar icon menu will change "Install Updates" to "Installing Updates..." and when the update finishes downloading, it will begin to install itself automatically.
Granola Settings Help
The settings window looks like this:
In the settings window, you can change the power management policies of Granola and set some other options.
The large slider at the top of the window allows you to adjust power management of your computer. The default setting in the middle allows Granola to dynamically adjust the power so that you only use what you need. Sliding all the way to the right allows you to set your computer to always use the highest power setting. You will see no energy savings at this setting. Sliding all the way to the left will set your computer to the lowest power setting. This setting will save as much power as possible, but will slow down your computer and give noticeable performance loss. It is recommended that you leave the slider in the middle so that you will save energy while not sacrificing any performance.
The "Open window on start" option will show the main Granola screen when your computer starts.
"Check for updates" will allow Granola to see if any new versions are available.
At the bottom are display settings. There is a text box that allows you to enter your cost per kilowatt/hour to make your monetary savings display more accurate. You can then set the unit used for monetary and CO2 savings to either US Dollars or British Pounds and pounds or kilograms by clicking the appropriate button. The "Reporting" buttons will change the view from your cumulative savings to projected annual savings and back.
Pressing the Apply button at the bottom will update settings to what you have selected. The OK button will update any settings changed and close the settings window. The Cancel button will discard any changes made and close the settings window.
Troubleshooting
Granola starts and I get this error window about DVFS:
Do you have the BIOS options for dynamic voltage and frequency scaling turned on? Read this page for information on known models.
Granola starts and I get a message about not being able to connect to the 'Granola PM Manager service'
See this entry on how to start the service here.
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