Turn on your PC quickly it is very useful when we are in a hurry and we have to start working immediately, with no 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 show you then how to shut down your PC with hibernation with any Windows operating system, so as to have the absolute certainty that at the next reboot the computer will be much faster to start up (even if we had a mechanical disk instead of an SSD). The procedure varies depending on the Microsoft operating system in use, but we recommend applying it as soon as possible as it saves a lot of time on startup (less than half, depending on the performance of the system disk).
READ ALSO: When to use suspension or hibernation of the Windows computer?
How to shut down your PC with hibernation
To be able to hibernate the PC correctly, simply activate the Fast Boot on Windows 10 and shut down the PC normally; on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 instead, we will have to hibernate the PC by selecting the appropriate item Hibernation from the shutdown menu.
How to use hibernation on Windows 10
On Windows 10 the hibernation procedure is active by default, we will only have to shut down the computer using the Start menu, click the shutdown icon and select the item Stop the system. If it is not active, it will be possible to enable hibernation in Windows 10 as seen in another article.
If we notice a slowdown in the start-up phase, the Fast Boot may not have started correctly; to restore the operation we click on the Start menu at the bottom left, look for the item Change the settings made when the lid is closed, we click upon Change the settings currently unavailable so let’s make sure there is a checkmark next to the item Enable 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 below on Save changes to make the changes effective. If instead, we wish to have a separate entry for hibernation, we can also enable the entry Hibernation, so you can select it directly from the system shutdown minus.
How to activate hibernation on Windows 8.1
If we use Windows 8.1 as the operating system, we can turn off the PC with hibernation by taking us to the Start screen at the bottom left, looking for Energy saving options and, in the new window that appears, we click on the item Specify power button behavior, placed on the left side. In the new screen, we click on the item Change the settings currently unavailable then we enable the check mark on the item Hibernation.
From now on we will be able to hibernate the PC simply by right-clicking on the Windows Start icon and selecting Close or log out -> Hibernate; alternatively we can open the right sidebar, click Settings and select the button stops, so you can press up Hibernation.
How to activate hibernation on Windows 7
If we use a machine with Windows 7, we will first need to enable hibernation by looking for the Control panel from the Start menu at the bottom left. In the control panel window, let’s get in System and security and click on Change computer sleep settings, present under the section Energy saving options.
In the new window we click on the item Change advanced power settings, let’s make sure that the currently active energy profile is selected, so let’s get into it Suspension -> Put in a state of hibernation after, taking care to insert as a value Never; let’s take us now Allow hybrid suspension and set it up disabled, then we confirm the changes by pressing apply is OK.
Now we can hibernate our PC with Windows 7 simply by opening the Start menu, clicking on the small arrow next to the button Stop the system and choosing the item Hibernation.
How to plan PC hibernation
If we want the computer to go into hibernation 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 is to start a simple one Command Prompt (which we can look for in the Start menu) and use of the following terminal command:
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 topic -t (instead of 0 we can then use 3600 seconds for an hour, 7200 seconds for two hours and so on).
As an alternative to the command prompt, we can automate hibernation by opening the program Scheduler (we can find it in the Start menu); to plan hibernation we click right side on Create activity, we assign a name to the activity so let’s get into the tab Actions and click below on New. In the new window that we will see appear we insert shutdown.exe in the field Program and the arguments -h is -f in the field of the same name.
We click below on OK; let us now go to the tab Activation, click below on New; in the new window we choose the activity activation mode, setting a time, a precise date or a precise condition. In the end we click on OK and finally up OK to add the scheduled activity.
Alternatively, we can schedule the shutdown using the free Wise Auto Shutdown program.
With this program, we will be able to create simple automatic activities with which to hibernate the PC at a precise time, on a specific day of the month or to proceed after a certain period of activity.
To configure it, simply check the item Hibernate, then select the action time on the right side of the app; once the configuration is completed, we put the checkmark on the item Please remind me 5 minutes before the task is executed so let’s click on Start Task to create the automatic activity.
When the time comes, the PC will automatically hibernate without user intervention, which will be notified 5 minutes before the start of the activity so as to be able to close any open programs or proceed with the cancellation of the activity (if it deems it appropriate).
Conclusions
As we have seen the turn off the PC with hibernation and then turn it on quickly is very simple, just take advantage of the features offered by Windows 10 and enable some items in old Microsoft operating systems to hibernate the PC and reactivate it very quickly. To get the fastest reboots we recommend replacing the mechanical disc with an SSD, as described in our guide How to replace the hard disk to upgrade the PC in an hour.
If we want the password to be returned to the account when we restart, we can set the auto-login for automatic access on every PC with Windows.
If we are undecided whether to suspend or hibernate a PC, we advise you to investigate the question on our article Is it better to shut down the PC or put it in standby (suspension)?
In another article we then saw how, using an external program, you can automatically wake up the PC from suspension or hibernation.