The standard Stand By, Turn Off, and Restart options presented by both Windows XP and Windows Vista aren’t the only options we have to shutdown the PC. The other option is Hibernate. And, it works surprisingly reliably with both Windows XP and Vista. Startup seems to be faster since it restores all processes that were running eliminating many of those annoying slow start-up processes. And, since the application windows last run are popped right back up, you can get back to work faster than if you started from a blank slate.
Hibernate doesn’t require a trickle charge like Suspend. So, you can turn off a power strip and completely remove power to your PC, its display, and other peripherals. This means that the power wasted on your various giant power bricks is removed and also cuts down on waste heat generation. I’ve started following Green Technology items as it relates to techies on my new blog GreenTechies.com too.
Getting Hibernate to appear in Windows’s shutdown window has been hit and miss for me. So, I just have the hardware power button assigned start the Hibernate process. You can find the Windows XP procedure listed below. You can still force a shutdown by pressing and holding the power button for 5 seconds or more if you run into a problem. And, of course, pulling the A/C cord or battery works in an emergency.
- Start
- Control Panel
- Power Options
- Hibernate (tab)
- Enable hibernation (check box)
- Advanced (tab)
- When I press the power button on my computer: (list) Hibernate
What’s hit-and-miss about depressing the shift key when the “Turn off computer” panel appears? On all of my XP SP2 systems, it works a charm.
Just remember that Hibernate is shifted-Standby.
ocmid: Hibernate appears as a fourth option in the shutdown window shown above on one XP PC and as a pulldown menu item in the shudown menu item of a second PC running Vista. It does not appear at all on other XP PCs. Thanks for the tip about the Shifted-Standby. I didn’t know about that.