Can we have more info surfaced up to widows when using windows 8 native powere management.

[BillP]

I haven't installed or used a UPS in 10 years.

Just got a smart-ups 1500 for a Win8 based media server I have.

I was surprised to see UPS vendors software is as terrible as it has ever been - terrible UI, confusing features, powerchute personal doesn't work etc

Bottom line powerchute business edition is too much for my needs, hard to install and terrible to maintain for a single machine.

So I am now using Windows 8 native power management - seems to work fine.

It would be nice for the USB port on the smart-ups to surface more information, like charge time remaining, battery health etc, the APIs are there - my laptop does it ok.

I guess some product manager at APC has the misplaced idea that their software is 'their unique differentiation' - nope it isn't, its awful.

You could have unique differentiations by supporting the Windows 8 / 2012 / Win7 etc power management interfaces better.

Now I wonder if APC even listens on the forums or not......

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Yes, we do listen. It is great to hear user feedback since the users are the ones who use the products.

Just a few clarifications. Smart UPS products do not work with PowerChute Personal Edition as you found out.

If you are using PowerChute Business Edition for one Smart UPS - it is not too clunky if you just install PowerChute Business Edition Agent. You don't need the server and console piece. With this method, you just manage the UPS by a single web page/URL and it is pretty easy. If you are already doing this, I am not sure what is clunky about it.

Also, the information you get via USB depends on the UPS model, not necessarily the software. Thus, we'd have to give some of the feedback to the UPS product managers too - what specific information are you looking for that you wish you could see there?