After your PC goes to sleep, it is ready to spring back into action as soon as a tap on the keyboard occurs because it remains in a low-power state. Leaving your PC in this mode is beneficial because it allows you to get back to your previous task quickly without the computer waking up on its own before it is prompted to do so. The only problem is that when you let your PC go to sleep like this, it continues to consume power.
The good news is that you can leave your PC just as it is without using any power by putting it in hibernation mode. When you do this, the computer shuts down and restores the system state from a hibernation file as soon as you turn it back on.
Putting your computer in hibernation mode is simple. To enable or disable this feature, open up the Command Prompt window and then hit the powercfg command along with the -h switch. To turn on hibernation, hit “powercfg-h on”, and to turn it off again, you substitute the word “on” for “off” in the formula.
Since hibernation is usually not available in the standard shutdown menu, you can make it visible by opening up the Power Options in your Control Panel. Then, click on “Choose What the Power Buttons Do.” Once you get to the Shutdown Settings heading, pick the Hibernate checkbox so it is displayed in the Power Menu.
Want to know more tips for working on a Windows PC? Contact us at John McCann and Associates, Inc., and we would be more than happy to help.