Turning on the PC quickly is very useful when we are in a hurry and we have to start working immediately, without downtime. If on Windows 10 this behavior is quite common (since the quick start is already activated by default), it is not obvious when we use a PC with Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, where hibernation must be configured manually. In this guide we will then show you how to shut down your PC with hibernation with any Windows operating system, so as to have the absolute certainty that the next time you restart the computer it will be much faster to boot (even if we had a mechanical disk at the place of an SSD). The procedure varies depending on the Microsoft operating system in use, but we recommend applying it as soon as possible since it saves a lot of time at startup (less than half, based on the performance of the system disk).
READ ALSO: When to use suspend or hibernate your Windows computer "> activate hibernation in Windows 10 as seen in another article.
If we notice a slowdown in the boot phase, the Fast Boot may not have started correctly; to restore the operation, click on the bottom left of the Start menu, look for the item Change the settings run when the lid is closed, click on the top on Change the settings that are currently not available, then make sure there is a check mark next to the Enable item quick start (recommended) ; if it is already checked, we can try to remove it and reactivate it, so as to restore any malfunctions.
We click Save changes below for the changes to take effect. If, on the other hand, we wish to have a separate hibernation item, we can also enable the Hibernate item, so that we can select it directly from the system shutdown minus.
How to enable hibernation on Windows 8.1
If we use Windows 8.1 as the operating system, we can turn off the PC with hibernation by going to the Start screen at the bottom left, looking for Power Options and, in the new window that will appear, click on the item Specify power button behavior, located on the side to the left. In the new screen we click on the item Change the settings currently not available then we enable the check mark on the item Hibernation .From now on we will be able to hibernate the PC simply by pressing the right button on the Windows Start icon and selecting Close or disconnect -> Hibernate ; alternatively we can open the right side sidebar, click Settings and select the Stop button, so you can press on Hibernate .
How to enable hibernation on Windows 7
If we use a machine with Windows 7, we will first have to enable hibernation by looking for the Control Panel from the Start menu at the bottom left. In the control panel window, go to System and Security and click on Change computer sleep settings, present under the Power Options section.
In the new window we click on the item Change advanced energy saving settings, make sure that the currently active energy profile is selected then go to Sleep -> Put in hibernation after, taking care to enter as a value Never ; let's go now to Allow hybrid suspension and set it to Disabled, then confirm the changes by pressing Apply and OK .
Now we can hibernate our PC with Windows 7 simply by opening the Start menu, clicking on the small arrow next to the Shut down button and choosing Hibernate .
How to plan PC hibernation
If we want the computer to hibernate after a certain period of time, we can follow three different paths: a manual, one with a tool provided by Windows and one through a simple free program.The manual way involves starting a simple Command Prompt (which we can look for in the Start menu) and using the following command from the terminal:
shutdown –h –f –t 0
With this command we will start the hibernation procedure instantly; if instead we wanted the procedure to start after one or two hours, it is sufficient to add the time in seconds immediately after the argument -t (instead of 0 we can therefore use 3600 seconds for an hour, 7200 seconds for two hours and so Street).
As an alternative to the command prompt, we can automate hibernation by opening the Scheduler program (we can find it in the Start menu); to plan the hibernation, click on the right side on Create activity, assign a name to the activity then go to the Actions tab and click New on the bottom . In the new window that we will see we insert shutdown.exe in the Program field and the arguments -h and -f in the homonymous field.
We click OK on the bottom; now let's go to the Activation tab, click on New at the bottom; in the new window we choose how to activate the activity, setting a specific time, date or condition. At the end we click OK and finally OK to add the scheduled activity.
Alternatively we can schedule the shutdown using the free Wise Auto Shutdown program.
With this program we can create simple automatic activities with which to hibernate the PC at a specific time, on a specific day of the month or to proceed after a certain period of activity.
To be able to configure it, simply tick the Hibernate item, then select the action time in the right part of the app; once the configuration is finished, we put a check mark on the item Please remind me 5 minutes before the task is executed then click on Start Task to create the automatic task.
At the stroke of the preset time the PC will automatically hibernate without user intervention, which will be notified 5 minutes before the stroke of the activity so as to close any open programs or proceed with the cancellation of the activity (if deemed necessary appropriate).
Conclusions
As we have seen turning off the PC with hibernation and then turning it on quickly is very simple, just take advantage of the features offered by Windows 10 and enable some items in the old Microsoft operating systems to be able to hibernate the PC and reactivate it very quickly. For faster reboots, we recommend replacing the mechanical disk with an SSD, as described in our guide How to replace the hard disk to upgrade your PC in an hour .If we do not want to be asked for the password to access the account at reboot, we can set the autologon to log in automatically on every PC with Windows.
If we are undecided whether to put a PC in hibernation or hibernation, we advise you to investigate the matter on our article Better to turn off the PC or put it in standby (suspension) "> automatically awaken the PC from suspension or hibernation
