News and Updates
DssW's latest news and information. Announcements, insights, and guides all appear here first.
Scripting without Passwords
How to script Power Manager without needing to enter passwords or credentials.
When writing scripts or tools that use pmctl as a client, being able to avoid an interactive prompt is often essential. We have previously written about How to Avoid Passwords in Power Manager Scripts but in the twelve years since, the underlying tools have evolved and become cross platform. What worked then, is no longer appropriate today. Let’s revisit the topic. …
Published
Missing Energy Saver Schedule in macOS 13
Acknowledging the removal of the power schedule from Energy Saver.
With the launch the macOS 13, aka Ventura, Apple removed their user interface for scheduling power events. The omission is conspicuous, particularly during a time when energy costs are making news headlines. Reducing energy use through automation is an effective way to reducing costs. So this removal of a simple built-in interface is unfortunate. …
Published
How to Open a Link or URL
Learn how to open a link or URL from a scheduled event.
You can create an event in Power Manager that automatically opens a link or URL. The URL will open in the user’s default browser. This behaviour can be customised by passing additional arguments to the open command. …
Published
Apple Silicon
Announcing support for Apple silicon in Power Manager.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager 5.9.3. This minor update adds native support for Apple silicon. Power Manager’s core now includes arm64 native support. In Apple’s terminology, the application is now “Universal”. …
Published
How to Prepare a Schedule for File Configuration
Learn how to export and prepare a schedule for distribution using Power Manager's file configuration capability.
Power Manager can be managed using a technique called file configuration. File configuration involves placing a file of settings and commands in a secure folder for Power Manager to read. In this recipe we use the new -file-configuration flag added to pmctl. This flag eases the creation of the configuration file. …
Published
How to Run a Script When the Battery is Charged
Learn how to automatically run a script when the computer battery is charged.
You can create an event in Power Manager to automatically perform tasks when the computer’s battery reaches a specific charge. In this recipe, we will create an event that runs a script when the battery reaches 90% charged. …
Published
Power Manager 5.9.0 Released
Announcing the launch of Power Manager 5.9.0 for macOS.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager 5.9. This update introduces a new astronomic calculations library and improvements to the user interface. This update changes the sun trigger and condition to use the astral library. Along with the change in library we fixed a tricky time zone bug and improved the user interface for entering the longitude and latitude. …
Published
Power Manager 5.8.0 Released
Announcing the launch of Power Manager 5.8.0 for macOS.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager 5.8. This update adds support for running Shortcuts as part of a schedule. Shortcuts can be scheduled to run in a wide range of situations, including on-demand, once, daily, after inactivity, on log-in, and when the battery level drops. Additionally, this update includes a bug fix for missing properties in the Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) interface. …
Published
Power Manager 5.7.0 Released
Announcing the launch of Power Manager 5.7.0 for macOS.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager 5.7. This update changes how Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) are used in preparation for the next version of macOS. Power Manager requires macOS 10.12 or later. …
Published
Power Manager 5.6.0 Released
Announcing the launch of Power Manager 5.6.0 for macOS.
We are pleased to announce the launch of Power Manager 5.6. This update introduces new log out trigger options and minor fixes. Power Manager requires macOS 10.12 or later. Updating Power Manager Power Manager will automatically check for updates every so often, so there is nothing to do. The update will automatically be offered to you during the next few weeks. …
Published