Little Miss Enviro Geek : Windows

Some personal news...

biwirth — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:24:00 GMT

Hello Dear Blog Readers,

(hmmm....that kinda sounds like the beginning of one of those SPAM emails)

I wanted to let you all know I am moving on from Microsoft and shall no longer be blogging here. I'll be moving an archive of these posts to my website http://www.greenitstrategy.com and shall continue blogging there on Green IT.

So what will I be doing now?

Well, I have decided to take some time off, write a book and maybe look into starting my own business. Regardless, you can always catch me through my website and please do feel free to visit me there.

Thank you to everyone who contacted me with their Green IT questions over the past two years and gave me feedback. I really appreciate your support and good luck with your own Green IT initiatives.

Kind Regards,

Bianca AKA Little Miss Enviro Geek

Desktop & Server Energy Efficiency Calculators

biwirth — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:09:00 GMT

Microsoft has worked with Alinean to build an online Green Savings calculator for both Desktop and Server Energy Savings. It has a similar look & feel as the Green Virtualisation calculator I blogged about in November.

Instead of taking you through the steps for the calculators, I'd like to give my fellow Aussie IT Pros some specific information to help them customise the calculators to the Australian market. Many of the figures within the calculator are US specific but its pretty easy to change these once you know what the typical Aussie configs should be.

So go ahead and select "Register Now", complete that process, then on the first page customise the questions to your IT environment. For example:

Clicking Next will give you the following page - now here is where we'll customise to Australian standards - select the link - "Click here to review / edit detailed assumptions".

On the page that pops up, go through & change the following metrics:

Metric	Default Measurement	Australian Measurement	Australian Reference
Average work days per year	218	223	Australians typically work 11 months of the year but this figure excludes holidays etc (see below). Obviously customise this if your business is quite different. The total number of days is based on non-leap year i.e. 365 days.
Average non-work days per year (weekends, holidays and vacations)	147	142	Includes: - 104 days of weekends - 10 days personal leave - 20 days annual leave - 8 public holidays (NSW) This varies depending on the year & your state in Australia so check out this LINK for a full list for 2009. I used the NSW public holidays in 2009 for the numbers above, excluding the bank holiday in August because not everyone gets that!
PC User Profile	[your own]	[your own]	This should be very specific to the user profiles in your own environment.
Non-Vista PC Profile & Windows Vista PC Profile	[your own]	[your own]	These figures depend again on your specific environment. You can assess these specific figures using Microsoft Partner software such as Verdiem, which will report on usage profiles.
Power Consumption	-	-	Unless you know specific figures for your machines, its probably best to leave these figures as is.
Current price paid for power per kW-hour	$0.1082	$0.11	Based on the OECD reporting for electricity prices, Australia is slightly more expensive than the US so I'd recommend changing this although it probably won't make a major difference to the savings. If you have your actual averages for power costs (check with facilities management) then enter these here.
Expected growth in power costs (starting in year 2)	6.0%	See additional table below.	This isn't really simple as there are different figures per state and per retailer, and dependent on the amount of electricity used. However IPART (who regulates retail pricing) have provided a 3 year indication of pricing increases for electricity which I summarised in table below.
Average carbon emissions per automobile (metric tons per year)	5.46	4.01	In Australia in 2005, passenger cars contributed 43.7 Mt of carbon emissions and there were 10,896,000 passenger cars.
Average carbon emissions per home (metric tons per year)	9.31	8	In Australia, the average household produces approximately 8 tonnes of carbon through electricity use.

Energy price increases:

1. Locate your electricity provider

2. Find out your total energy use (e.g. 20mWh) from facilities or whoever manages electricity in your business

3. Correlate this to the appropriate 3 year average column (last column)

For example, if my business uses 20mWh per annum and my energy supplier is EnergyAustralia, my 3 year average figure is 7.3. I then enter 7.3% into the field "Expected growth in power costs (starting in year 2)"

Electricity Supplier:				Energy Australia

Total Energy use	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average (to 2009/10 FY)
20mWh	7.2	7.5	7.3	7.3
40mWh	7.3	7.5	7.5	7.4
80mWh	7.3	7.5	7.4	7.4


Electricity Supplier:				Country Energy

	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average
20mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0
40mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0
80mWh	8.9	6	6	7.0


Electricity Supplier:				Integral Energy

	2006/07-2007/08	2007/08-2008/09	2008/09-2009/10	3 year average
20mWh	7.7	8.1	8.1	8.0
40mWh	7.7	8	8.1	7.9
80mWh	7.7	8	8.1	7.9

Reference: http://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au/files/Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Overview%20of%20Final%20report%20and%20determination%20on%20electricity%20retail%20prices%20in%20NSW%20-%201%20July%202007%20to%2030%20June%202010.PDF

Green IT: New Power & Unified Comms whitepapers

biwirth — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 01:10:00 GMT

There are a few new whitepapers on power savings & telework that have been released recently (some replacing older whitepapers and some brand new):

Reducing PC Power Consumption and Costs with Windows Vista - targeted at business and technical decision makers, this whitepaper replaces the old 'Windows Energy Conservation' whitepaper (2007). Its a nice succinct paper that gives a good overview of what exactly makes Windows Vista more energy efficient, provides data on Energy Star analysis and covers two specific customer examples and the savings they have made with Windows Vista.

IT Administrator's Guide to Using Windows Vista for Sustainable IT Success - more targeted at the IT Pro, this whitepaper covers a few of the bits from the above whitepaper, then extends out to cover 7 core recommendations including goal setting, education of users and hardware considerations.

Addressing the challenges facing the distributed, 21st Century Business Through Telework - this one is a Wainhouse Research report sponsored by Microsoft and was released in June 2008. Its about 20 pages and covers off the definition of telework, business issues & impacts related to telework, technologies and three different telework scenarios. Overall it has some good background statistics & info that can contribute to your internal business case for telework / telecommuting / remote working programs. In the technologies section they are generic but do have a Microsoft Technologies box outlining what can be used from our perspective - its not particularly specific but just wanted to make a note that OCS R2 was recently released (Feb 09) which provides enhanced telephony features if you are considering this technology. Check out the latest features of OCS R2 or this link for the detailed technical guides.

Telework and the US Federal Government: At the Tipping Point - and finally, for those readers of mine in the US, this whitepaper (by the same research group as the one above) takes a specific look at the US government related issues, impacts and case studies. Although parts of it are obviously very US-government-centric (and repeat elements of the previous whitepaper), it still makes a good reference for other global governments' teleworking strategy development.

HOW TO: Windows Vista Power Management Video

biwirth — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:42:00 GMT

Just a real quick one today: on my personal Green IT website, I have posted a short 1:16 minute video targeted more for end-users and general public, on how to configure their Windows Vista machine to Energy Star-recommended power settings.

I'd expect the IT Pro to set their's through group policies so I'll be posting up a video on this in the near future.

In the meantime if your small business, mum or grandma want to know how to do it, point them to this VIDEO.

New Microsoft Services for Green IT

biwirth — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:05:24 GMT

I had been speaking with a couple of the local Microsoft Consulting guys recently about their endeavours to setup services around Green IT, and then found globally we already offer a couple of services in this space:

Microsoft Architecture & Planning Services - focus on reducing costs, increasing IT control & management and reducing environmental impact through the development of a Sustainable Technology Roadmap, and assessment of server consolidation, desktop efficiency, business intelligence capability and unified communications. Check out the brochure HERE.
Sustainable IT Briefing - wherever there is a Microsoft Technology Center (MTC) there is a team who can run a one-day briefing workshop covering areas such as: how Windows technologies provide built-in energy efficiency, how to optimise resources using System Center & Virtualisation technologies, identification of opportunities to reduce carbon through unified communications, how BI can provide a platform for sustainability performance management, and how Software + Services can provide workload transference opportunities. The complete brochure is HERE.

If you are based in Australia, we don't have an MTC unfortunately however there are a couple of us here (including me) who can run a Green IT session for you as part of an Executive Briefing in our Sydney-based Executive Briefing Centre (EBC). If you are interested in this, contact your local Account Manager and ask them if you can setup an executive briefing with Green IT as one of the topics (there are lots of other topics we can cover in these types of sessions as well - we have a catalogue to choose from).

Also, a quickun' today: Microsoft Australia has recently launched their Environment site - check it out at www.microsoft.com/australia/environment.

Get the Facts on Green IT

biwirth — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:36:58 GMT

I thought while I was sitting here in my pyjamas eating breakfast this morning I'd post a little facts blog (yes I have no life - or rather my life is so full of stuff I don't have time to blog any other time - so in pyjamas it is). Below are the top 5 facts per topic area - this great list was recently put together by our E&S team in corp...

The Products:

1. Windows Vista: According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) customers can save about $50 each year for every desktop computer equipped with the new software. Used widely, new power management tools in the Vista operating system could shave $500 million off the nation's energy bill and eliminate 3 million tons of global warming pollution.

2. Windows Server 2008: 10% more efficient on the same workload than previous versions

3. Virtualization: Virtualization can reduce energy use by up to 90%

4. Unified Communications: According to Forrester, UC can reduce travel from 10-30%

5. MS Data Centers: current data centers are 50% more efficient than those built 3 years ago.

Microsoft themselves:

1. Commuting: With this expansion of the Connectors, estimates suggest that Microsoft will eliminate annually 6,730,020 employee car miles and 6,387,550 pounds (or 3,194 tons) of carbon emissions.

2. Microsoft reduced its waste by 50% by moving to compostables. Microsoft becomes first US corporate campus to achieve Green Restaurant Certification for its cafeterias

3. New Microsoft buildings consume greater than 20 percent less energy than existing traditional buildings

4. Through the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher programs, Microsoft provides low-cost software licenses to help extend the life of over 500,000 computers per year

5. Microsoft is a board member of Climate Savers Computing Initiative along with World Wildlife Fund, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and other software and IT companies, is committed to reducing the IT industry's carbon footprint by over 50 million tons a year

Our Customers:

1. Volvo: "Volvo IT estimates that just the Microsoft collaboration products alone save enough travel to eliminate 900 tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per month, and use of those tools is gradually increasing.

2. Continental: saved $65/PC/Year or 2Milliion a year by deploying vista with System Center

3. City of Porto: the city saved 504 reams of paper (11 trees per year) by moving their paper based cabinet meetings online.

4. The City of Miami can "expect to save $80,000 in power costs in the first year, with that number increasing to $190,000 by year four. Not only will this save us money, but it also will enable the city to do its part to reduce the impact on the environment-with the resulting power savings equivalent to a 355-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in the first year alone."

5. Kentucky Department of Education: Reduce its physical server holdings by 60 percent (approximately 120 servers); Reduce data center space by 50 percent ;Reduce power usage by 25 percent

The Market:

1. The overall market for green IT services will peak at $4.8 billion in 2013, according to a new Forrester report, The Dawn of Green IT Services. It's a $500 million market for 2008, InfoWorld reports, but Forrester expects that spending on green IT services among enterprise users will grow by 60 percent annually over the next five years.

2. Servers typically run at far below their capacity and on average only utilize 5 to 15 percent of the actual CPU capabilities

3. A recent PC Pro Labs study, showed that 25% leave their computers running all weekend and 65% running a screen saver rather than sleep.

4. Energy costs are expected to be over 50% of an IT budget for a typical data center

5. According to The Climate Group in their Smart 2020 report, transformation in the way people and businesses use technology could reduce annual man-made global emissions by 15% by 2020 and deliver energy efficiency savings to global businesses of over $800 billion.

For more information, go to www.microsoft.com/environment.

Comprehensive list of Vista Power Management resources...

biwirth — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:58:00 GMT

There is a tonne of information available on Vista power management, from whitepapers to videos to blog posts. I’ve tried to document a list of the best here:

· Optimising Windows Vista for power efficiency - this white paper details the various scenarios and configurations you can enable, including detailed INF configurations for building SOEs. Focuses a bit on system builders but any SOE specialist will find this valuable.

· Windows Vista Energy Conservation – a good broad overview of the features in Windows Vista that help conserve energy use. Includes some test figures for how much power a PC consumes and formulas for how you can calculate energy savings, and the subsequent impact on carbon emissions.

· Application Power Management Best Practices in Windows Vista – details application event management and best practices on how application developers on handling low power states and designing for extending battery life.

· ACPI / Power Management – Architecture and Driver support – a great website that lists a number of resources to help you better understand and develop on a Windows platform for greater energy efficiency.

· Power Management with Windows Vista Best Practices PowerPoint slides – a great 2 page slide deck from Microsoft IT that could be used to educate internal users at your organisation.

· Power Management in Windows Vista – a slide deck from WinHEC 2006 by Pat Stemen in the Windows Platform Architecture Group, outlining the goals of Vista power management, and providing an overview of reliable sleep transitions, modes, power configuration using powercfg, and broad best practices.

· Processor Power Management in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 – concepts, policies and tools to use for power management.

· Active State Power Management in Windows Vista – a brief whitepaper covering the effect of bus architecture on power consumption, as well as specifications.

· New Categories in Power Management – a 1 paragraph overview of the new Vista power management policies.

Plus there are some great blog entries out there providing advice in this space:

· Power Management in Windows Vista video - http://blogs.technet.com/tnspot/archive/2007/06/28/spotlight-video-on-demand-pat-stemen-power-management-in-windows-vista.aspx

· Vista Power Savings Case Study link - http://blogs.technet.com/james/archive/2008/04/28/vista-power-saving-stats.aspx

· Screencast: Vista Power Management - http://blogs.technet.com/chrisavis/archive/2007/06/19/screencast-vista-power-management-power-plans.aspx

· Vista Power Management using Group Policy (part 1 & 2) - http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/08/30/452916.aspx and http://blogs.technet.com/grouppolicy/archive/2006/09/06/vista-has-the-power-part-two-of-two.aspx

· Windows Vista Virtual Labs links - http://blogs.technet.com/curiousgeorge/archive/2008/05/13/windows-vista-virtual-lab-improve-your-pc-s-power-management.aspx

· Writing a custom power management script - http://blogs.technet.com/fdcc/archive/2008/01/30/script-a-custom-power-management-policy.aspx

· What variations of sleep does my computer support - http://blogs.technet.com/brad_rutkowski/archive/2007/04/18/what-variations-of-sleep-does-my-computer-support-and-why-did-it-wake-up.aspx

· Managing Power with Group Policy - http://blogs.technet.com/askds/archive/2008/03/17/managing-power-with-group-policy-part-1-of-3.aspx

· Video – how much power does your PC consume? - http://edge.technet.com/Media/How-much-power-does-your-PC-consume/

· Power Management and CPU Frequency - http://blogs.msdn.com/richardt/archive/2007/07/11/vista-power-management-cpu-frequency.aspx

New Windows Server 2008 Power Savings Whitepaper & results published!!!

biwirth — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:18:00 GMT

Microsoft has published a new whitepaper on Windows Server 2008 power savings, and the results and methodologies of the tests run to develop the paper.

This is an excellent document, which outlines the test results (downloadable in separate spreadsheets) and the role of virtualisation in optimising energy efficiencies in your data centres.

Check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61d493fd-855d-4719-8662-3a40ba3a0a5c&displaylang=en

To save energy, send your PCs to sleep, then shake them (nicely) awake with Wake on Lan (WoL)

biwirth — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:49:00 GMT

The team at The Manageability Team Blog have posted a very comprehensive article on how to setup Wake on LAN (WoL) capabilities using System Centre Configuration Manager 2007. WoL enables you do things like implement security patches on PCs that have been sleeping (i.e. saving energy when not being used)...excerpt here:

"Wake-on-LAN (WoL) allows properly configured (BIOS, Operating System, Network Interface Card) machines to resume operation from various sleep modes in response to a network request. The network request comes in the form of a magic packet which is a special formatted network packet. Sleep refers to the low power states of Windows XP and Vista: Standby (S3), Hibernate (S4), and hybrid sleep. Hybrid sleep is a feature of Windows Vista that combines the features of S3 and S4; when entering sleep a hibernate file is saved to the hard disk but the computer resumes from memory unless power is lost. This can create problems if systems like Configuration Manager need to distribute software to a collection of hardware devices. An example would be a Security Patch that needs to be implemented as quickly as possible for a set of vulnerable machines. By combining all the pieces to create a WoL ready infrastructure, you'll end up with an environment that allows networked PCs to be both responsive 24x7 and efficient from a power consumption perspective."

Check out the full article here: http://blogs.technet.com/smsandmom/archive/2008/03/04/configmgr-2007-implementing-wake-on-lan-wol.aspx

"Thin is in" for green computing, but you need to consider the flexibility factor baby...

biwirth — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:20:00 GMT

There is always a big argument over whether “thin” environments are more energy efficient than traditional ‘rich client’ environments. There is lots of research and speculation out there, but having designed and consulted on thin solutions, I think there is more to the discussion than just client power usage.

Thin clients use less energy?

There is quite a lot of debate over whether thin clients use less energy. And if you believe they do, then you would be right – according to Forrester (2008), thin clients use about 25% less power than a traditional desktop.

However if you are in the market for a thin solution, be careful of claims higher than 25%. Last week one ISV/hardware company was quoted as saying their thin client solution delivered a “75% energy saving over the average PC”. Cool – that’s nice but what they didn’t say is that they aren’t comparing what we in Oz call "apples for apples". As far as I can gather their study only compares direct rich (aka fat) client to thin client. Not what energy the SERVER expends to compensate for thin client computing. Remember that when you change to a thin client model, the SERVER takes over the client processing role. Hence the majority of the energy is spent at the server, not the client. And once you place servers in a data centre, you need to add cooling into the mix. For a fair comparison then, you need to include server energy expenditure AND cooling costs associated with the server farm in the data centre. The aforementioned Forrester study, at a 25% energy (and subsequent carbon) saving, includes the compensation for the server energy and cooling requirements.

Keep flexibility at the top of the requirements list in a desktop client strategy!

This whole Green IT push originally comes from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has been around for more than 20 years. CSR is not about giving away your entire business profits to green initiatives. It’s about BALANCE. Balance is achieved between three core areas:

Economic
Environmental
Social

The value of each to your business can be determined by some basic analysis. One of these analysis types is called a multi-criteria analysis using a qualitative index, similar to the below example. This is pretty simple, and fairly subjective, but effective for a baseline. Essentially you apply a weighting to each element (economic, environmental and social) adding up to 100. Then for everything except most of the economic metrics (which are calculated by hard financial figures like Net Present Value (NPV)), you assign a rating based on considerations for your specific business:

"--" = 0
"-" = 0.25
"0" = 0.5
"+" = 0.75 (and so on)

As I said, the assignment of ratings is fairly subjective so if you want statistically real results, be objective. Preferably gather multiple opinions and knowledge across your business. When you assign the rating write good notes on why you have given each rating. Biased ratings don't do anyone favours in the long term.

Then on top of this type of business analysis, consider what is best practice from an IT architecture perspective. There is a tonne of material out there on best practice in a Microsoft world - check out the TechNet Library for per-product information: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/library/default.aspx.

When comparing rich and thin client strategies, this means considering desktop flexibility. I have seen too many companies commit to a particular long term desktop strategy, only to find their business model changes (e.g. through acquisition) and subsequently the defined desktop strategy is no longer viable.

Before you decide that thin client is the saviour to all your problems, one key question to ask is: What is your business user profile?

To provide two common examples:

If you have lots of CAD or GIS users, then thin client is not generally suitable for them. Graphic intensive applications, even after years of thin technology improvement, typically still don’t do well on thin environments. The exception to this rule, in the future, may be Microsoft's recent purchase of Calista (http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/jan08/01-21VirtualizationAdoptionPR.mspx) which provides presentation virtualisation (terminal services) for graphic intensive apps.
If you have employees that are frequently disconnected from the network, then thin is not suitable. In Microsoft I look after NSW Government agencies who frequently need to operate in an emergency situation, e.g.a flood-ravaged area where there may be no network connectivity for days to weeks on end. Instead look at technologies like Microsoft Application Virtualisation (aka SoftGrid - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/enterprise/features/tools.mspx). MAV can provide offline application virtualisation (at the same time solving a bevy of application compatibility & packaging issues) while still providing a good measure of centralised application deployment and control. This can be achieved through MAV natively, or System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2007 to promote a consistent management infrastructure internally.

So if we look at the three CSR factors (economic, environment & social) combined with IT best practice when developing an environmentally sustainable IT strategy, the best recommendation I could make is to consider a balance between each element, suitable for your specific business type.

Something for nothing - Rush; Making Memories - Rush; Starman - David Bowie; All my love - Pink Floyd

TechNet: Less runs more with Windows Server 2008

biwirth — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:31:00 GMT

Today on the Microsoft TechNet Australia newsletter, I wrote the editorial with some info around environmentally sustainable IT solutions using Windows Server 2008, SharePoint and Windows Mobile...copied here for those of you who missed out...

"Hi All,

This month Microsoft has let a enviro geek chick into the editorial ranks! And, as such, I just couldn't resist jumping onto the Windows Server 2008 Unleashed site to check out our Windows 2008 pet robot, IT 24-7.

After clicking on Toy Box, I was delighted to find a range of goodies like screensavers of my new friend. And I was also impressed by the wide range of more serious info - case studies and features on manageability, web and stability. All in all, with Windows Server 2008, less can definitely run more.

Power saving and virtualisation are two features I'm really excited about. And if you've been asked by your managers to investigate 'green' or environmentally sustainable IT solutions, you'll be excited about them too! The Virtualisation ROI tool determines power and cooling savings. So you can get that dream Windows 2008 Hyper-V environment, save business dollars, and reduce carbon emissions - all at the same time.

I must admit, I do have two other favourites - Windows Mobile and Microsoft Office SharePoint. I love anything that allows me to work out of the office and, even better, save time and the environment by not driving to work. You can learn all about these great tools on a new website called Gear up. What's more, check out the new Windows Mobile Business Value Calculator which will come in handy when you're building your 'work-out-of-office' business case.

Also check out this useful article about Sustainable Computing from our recent TechNet magazine. It's worth a read!"

It's Earth Day, and Microsoft have a great new website so you can love it up with the trees...

biwirth — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:25:00 GMT

So its Earth Day today - what does this mean and what is Microsoft doing to celebrate?

Quite simply, Wikipedia says Earth Day is "...intended to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment". The earth is affected by everything we do and we are affected by everything on earth in some way - so a day to recognise this justified I think! :)

Microsoft launched a new website today to celebrate: http://www.microsoft.com/environment/ it looks fantastic. Find out here things like:

How is Microsoft committed to the environment;
What are the business solutions from Microsoft that you can implement - quite cool here is the Dynamics Dashboard for tracking energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions http://www.microsoft.com/environment/business_solutions/articles/dynamics_ax.aspx - LOVE IT!
Find out ways to help the environment, through PC energy savings and cool tools;
Watch a video on best practices for Data Centre management;
Check Microsoft Environmental news;
Research the latest Software Showcase from Microsoft Partners.

This is excellent information to help you, my fellow geeks, develop strategies around 'green' or environmentally sustainable IT - think about including environmental information as part of your next business case to help get it up to executive management sign-off - they are all thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility (environment being just one area under CSR) and this might be the tipping point you need to get your dream Unified Communications infrastructure or Windows 2008 Hypervisor environment! ;-)

Recycling Bin - Is this a hidden Green IT message from 1995?

biwirth — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:57:00 GMT

Feeling slightly goofy this evening (it is Friday evening and I have had a glass of wine), I realised Microsoft has actually been 'Green IT' conscious for a long time - why you ask? Well the Windows "Recycle Bin" of course!

Good old Recycle Bin has been around since Windows 95 and has kept us safe from permanently deleting our virtual paper files (after accidently deleting them) for the past 13 years! Before Windows 95 we used to have the function to 'undelete' files (frought with danger - I remember when I deleted a lot of Windows system files from my PC in 1994 on Windows 3.11 after deciding they were just cluttering up the system and I didn't think I needed them - much to the frustration of the local computer store who sold my mum the PC - and yes I was very new to computers at that time!).

However the naming of 'Recycle Bin' may just be one of the 'prehistoric' steps in Microsoft's Green IT strategy...were they really thinking of environmental factors 13 years ago? Or was the naming of Recycle Bin, rather than 'Garbage Bin', just a marketing differentiation ploy? Our competitors have named their file dump features much less 'environmentally friendly' names - most called 'Trash' - oh come on guys a little bit of green IT fever here please!

I might contact one of the MS Product Managers to find out why they called it Recycle Bin instead of 'garbage bin' way back in 1994/5...if anyone has any knowledge on this, please post a comment!