Windows 7: How to restrict users from changing power scheme

I've got two questions concerning power management in windows Vista/7 (if someone can say what are the capabilities of Windows XP in this subject then I would be grateful). First of all: is it possible to prevent users from changing power scheme? And the second one: is it possible to capture events of changing settings of any power scheme? I know there are some events fired when the user changes the whole power scheme but I would also like to get noticed when user changes for example the time after which the monitor gets turned off.

In start menu type Group Policy, and through results, you should see Group Policy Editor. If not, then press the Windows key + R (or click Run from the same start menu), type gpedit.msc and hit Enter

Browse then to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Power Management.

Gpedit not available though in Home Premium.

Thank you very much . I've already tried searching for it in the Group Policy Editor but couldn't find it.

Do you know whether it's possible to change those values programmatically. I've noticed that GPE changes these values in the registry:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{4B7B5794-05AF-4391-9548-AEF4EA826F4A}Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Power\PowerSettings
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Power\PowerSettings
- HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2471370714-2801964238-51493560-1001\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{4B7B5794-05AF-4391-9548-AEF4EA826F4A}Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Power\PowerSettings

(it creates an ActivePowerScheme key there), but when I try to add them manually, I can still change the current power scheme. Does the GPE add any other values to the registry or is it something else, not connected with the registry?

Hi Jajo,

Standard users cannot change power options. Admin privileges are required to change the settings. So you can restrict by simply managing user account types.

You can navigate to this key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\CONTROLSFOLDER\POWERCFG\GLOBALPOWERPOLICY

Set permissions here.

Hope this helps.