tpfancontrol quick hack & best practices

Quick Hacks

Some quick notes, after installing tpfancontrol, since I found Smart Mode 2 more useful than Smart Mode 1, and couldn't find a good way to get it to default without this hack.  This is Windows 7, btw, differences may exist with other OSes.

But basically we're just looking to swap the settings in a configuration file:



1.  Bring up the start menu, and search for "edit TPFancontrol.ini".  Open that.  If it asks you for permissions because the program's an "unknown publisher", select Yes.

2.  Once notepad pops up with the contents of the ini file, search for the "MenuLabelSM1" section.  Write over the contents of that setting with the one from MenuLabelSM2.  Be sure to replace any "Level2=" with "Level=" (i.e. take out the "2") in the process.  I commented out mine instead.  In the end, it looks like this,

 MenuLabelSM1=Smart Mode 1/ Label for Icon Menu, must be terminated by '/'  
   
 // Level=60 0       // Level=140 0  
 // Level=65 1       // Level=150 1  
 // Level=75 3       // Level=165 3  
 // Level=80 7       // Level=175 7  
 // Level=90 64      // Level=195 64  
   
 Level=22 0        // Level2=70 0  
 Level=33 1        // Level2=90 1  
 Level=38 2        // Level2=100 2  
 Level=44 3        // Level2=110 3  
 Level=55 7        // Level2=130 7  
 Level=66 64       // Level2=150 64  
 Level=77 128      // Level2=170 128  
   
 // optional 2nd profile "Smart Mode 2", switched by icon menue  
 // change values and number of items for your needs  
 // to deactivate, insert leading '//' into following lines  
   
 // MenuLabelSM2=Smart Mode 2/ Label for Icon Menu, must be terminated by '/'  
   
 // Level2=22 0        // Level2=70 0  
 // Level2=33 1        // Level2=90 1  
 // Level2=38 2        // Level2=100 2  
 // Level2=44 3        // Level2=110 3  
 // Level2=55 7        // Level2=130 7  
 // Level2=66 64       // Level2=150 64  
 // Level2=77 128      // Level2=170 128  

3.  I also commented out the second MenuLabelSM2 setting, to avoid redundancy.  You can alternatively write over MenuLabelSM2 settings with the original MenuLabelSM1 if you wish.

4.  Close notepad, choose save, and you're done!

Best Practices

• I found a couple of other neat settings can be tweaked from here too: StartMinimized, BluetoothEDR, etc.  They're mostly self-explanatory, have fun!
• Because of my particular thinkpads inability to manage the temperature well through Power Manager (Windows Update Service + old laptop CPU = CPU heat!), I've tended to utilize the Manual Mode a few more times than what I previously expected.  In those cases, I've set the fanspeed to the highest setting of 64.