Practical
Advice for Win7 Laptops and Desktops
Standby vs. Hibernate Mode
Rick Broida, PC World, Nov
10, 2009
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/181892/>
A few months ago, I put together some useful
tips for laptops--stuff like fixing broken keys, and a useful
keyboard shortcut. I think it's about time for another grab bag of
tips. Read on for a laptop-specific power tip and a couple
one-size-fits all tips for Windows machines.
Should You Use
Standby or Hibernate?
It's an age-old question: When you're done using your
laptop, or just taking a break from work, should you put it to sleep,
let it hibernate, or turn it all the way off?
Allow me to answer by way of a mnemonic: Hibernate is
great. You see, sleep mode (aka standby) puts your system into an
off-like state, allowing you to pick up where you left off after just a
few seconds--unlike rebooting, which can take minutes. But a laptop in
standby mode continues to consume battery power, so it's not uncommon
to return to a "sleeping" machine to find that it's just plain dead.
Hibernate writes your laptop's current state to a
temporary hard-drive file, then shuts down completely. When you start
up the computer again, it loads that file and returns you to where you
left off--no booting required.
Both ends of the hibernate process take a little longer
than standby (usually 10-20 seconds, in my experience), but you avoid
any of the issues that can arise when Windows suddenly loses power.
What's more, standby is a notoriously flaky mode. I've encountered
plenty of systems that refuse to wake up properly, so you end up losing
the work you were trying to preserve. Consequently, unless you're
running your laptop on AC power, I recommend using hibernate most of
the time.
And here's a handy related tip: You can change the
function of your laptop's power button so that pressing it
automatically activates hibernation <http://www.pcworld.com/article/160826/>
(see next).
Change
the Function of Your Laptop's Power Button
Rick Broida, PC World, Mar 6, 2009
<http://www.pcworld.com/article/160826/>
I don't have any statistics on this, but most of the
laptops that cross my desk have one thing in common: pressing the power
button puts them to sleep (i.e. standby mode) instead of actually
shutting them down.
That's pretty weird considering that many laptops also
have dedicated "sleep" buttons. Fortunately, it's easy to change the
power button's function, which can be programmed to make the laptop
sleep, shut down, or hibernate. Here's how Vista users can make the
change:
1. Click Start, type power,
and then click Power Options.
2. In the lefthand sidebar, click Choose what
the power buttons do.
3. You should see two pull-down menus alongside When
I press the power button. One is for when the laptop's
running on battery power, the other for when it's plugged in. Choose
the setting you want for each scenario.
4. Click Save changes and you're
done.
As you may have noticed, this screen also lets you
change the functions for the sleep button (if your laptop has one) and
for what happens when you close the laptop's lid. So you can kill a
couple button-birds with this particular settings stone.
Special thanks to reader Jeff for suggesting this handy
tip!
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