Question : keep NIC on after shutdown / disable power management

I'm trying to keep my NIC on after the computer is shut down to allow for Wake On Lan.  I have confirmed that Wake On Lan works if I put the computer into Sleep mode.  I have WOL enabled in the BIOS.  I have WOL set to "Magic Packet" in Device Manager --> Network Adapter.  What is not working whatsoever is disabling the Power Management for the adapter.  No matter how many times I uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power", once I shut down the computer the NIC is offline.  When I boot back up again that box is checked.  The other two boxes in Power Management remain checked and greyed out after I uncheck that one ("Allow this device to wake the computer" and "Only allow management stations to wake this computer").  (Also, setting "Shut Down Wake-On-LAN to 'disabled" appears to grey out "allow this device to wake the computer").

I have searched and MS only references this problem twice in their KBs:  once regarding USB device (KB930312) and disable power management for network adapters in XP (KB837058).  I have tried the latter option, editing the registry value for PnPCapabilities to be 38.  This had no affect on my adapter and it remained off when I shut down my computer.  Wake On LAN  does not work after shutdown, and there are no lights on the NIC when shut down.  

My ultimate goal here is to be able to turn my computer on remotely when it is shut down.  Any free method (does not have to be magic packet) would work.  I'm aware LogMeIn Pro can do this but I was looking for something free.  Why does Vista not honor my settings and keep turning my network adapter off?

Vista x64 SP2
NIC: Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller w/latest drivers
Dell Studio 540

Answer : keep NIC on after shutdown / disable power management

It wasn't meant to be condescending and snarky, but I do see why it would come across that way therefore I apologise for the wording.

Bottom line however is that no setting in Windows affects anything during the power off state after a shutdown. You do have the system BIOS, but there is also a BIOS in the network card. With Intel, while booting up look for the Intel Boot Agent message to show up shortly after turning on your computer. Try CTRL-S to access it's BIOS settings at that time.