|
Hibernate Your Laptop
What is it?
Think of hibernating your PC as telling it to
pause everything that it is doing and go to sleep. When you tell it
to wake up, the computer resumes the state it was in. All of your
programs are still open, any open documents are available, and even
things you placed on the clipboard are intact.
Hibernating
takes far less time to complete than a normal startup or shutdown.
Unlike the standby feature in Windows, hibernate does not use your
laptop battery while it is shut down.
Example
Here is a
perfect example of when hibernating is handy: you are sitting in the
airport. You are writing a letter on your laptop when they announce
your plane is ready to board. Normally you would save your document,
close the word processor, then wait for Windows to shut down.
When you are ready to resume working on your letter, you would
start up your laptop and Windows, wait for everything to load, open
your word processor and then open your document.
Now let's
look at the same scenario with hibernate: when you hear the
announcement that your plane is ready, you simply choose 'Hibernate'
within Windows. In a few seconds your laptop is ready to close and
put in your bag.
When you are ready to resume working on your
letter, you simply open your laptop and press the power button. In a
few seconds your laptop is right back at your letter exactly as you
left it.
Enable Hibernation
To enable your computer for
hibernation (or verify it is done), follow these steps:
1.
Click on Start, then Settings, then Control Panel. (Depending on how
your computer is setup, the order may be: Start, then Control
Panel.)
2. (This step may not be required). Do you see "Switch to
classic view" on the left? If so, click it.
3. Double click on
the "Power Options" button on the right.
4. A new window will
open. On this window, click the tab along the top called
'Hibernate'.
5. The first option with a checkbox is called
"Enable hibernation". Make sure this item has a check next to it. If
it does not, click within the box to add a check.
6. Click "OK".
7. Close the Control Panel.
Do it!
You're ready to go.
To hibernate your computer, follow your normal procedure to shutdown
the computer. However, when you get to the "What do you want the
computer to do?" screen, choose "Hibernate".
Example: Click
on Start, then Shut Down. Depending on how your computer is setup,
either click the "Hibernate" button or change the drop down box to
say "Hibernate" then press OK.
You will see a progress bar as
your computer hibernates. To bring it back, simply press the power
button.
Go ahead and give it a try. Once you see how fast
hibernate works, you will use it all the time!
Things to Consider
Remember that as long as your computer is hibernated, anything
that is scheduled to run (such as antivirus updates or disk defrags)
will not run.
If you hibernate your PC often or overnight,
remember to manually perform your important updates. See our Windows
Updates article for more information.
Although you can
hibernate while most programs are running, we do not recommend
hibernating while you have network applications open. A network
application is an application that is concurrently used by more than
one person in the house or company.
If you are on a company
network
, check with the person in charge to make sure
hibernating is okay with your environment. They make have certain
tasks scheduled during the night that will not run if your computer
is hibernating.
Hibernate Faster
On most laptops you can
change the behavior of your power button. We usually recommend you
change your power button to perform a hibernate. This way when you
are ready to hibernate, all you have to do is press the power
button.
To enable this feature:
1. Follow steps 1, 2
and 3 above to get to the "Power Options" window.
2. Click the
tab along the top called "Advanced".
3. Look for the option "When
I press the power button on my computer:". Change this to Hibernate.
4. (Optional step) You can also change the "When I close the lid of
my computer" to a preference of your choice. We prefer to have the
laptop "Do Nothing" when we close the lid. This way if we need to
move our laptop or want some privacy we can close the lid without
the computer doing anything.
|
