Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Start Windows Instantly (Almost)

You can optimize Windows all you want, possibly shaving 15 or 20 seconds off your boot time (see the previous topic), or you can approach the problem from a different angle.

All modern PCs support a Standby mode that allows you to shut down Windows quickly, and more importantly, start it back up in only a few seconds. Standby is a power-saving mode (known as the S3 sleep state) that maintains power to your system memory and a few other components, while cutting power to your hard disk, monitor, network adapters, and most of the rest of the devices in your PC.

While it looks like it's turned off, a PC in Standby mode still uses some electricity. If you remove the battery from your laptop or unplug your desktop PC while it's in S3 Standby mode, the power to your system memory will be cut, and you will likely lose data (just as though you unplugged it while it was still on).

The Hibernate mode (the S4 sleep state) solves the power-off problem by storing an image of your RAM on your hard disk and then shutting down completely. This means you can cut power to your desktop PC with a separate power strip or remove the battery from your laptop, and still resume your last Windows session in a fraction of the time it would take to start Windows normally. The downside is that Hibernate takes a little longer to shut down and start up than Standby, and you need a lot more free disk space (at least as much as the amount of RAM in your PC). And then there's the small matter of the Hibernate feature being conspicuously absent (or at least hidden) in Windows 7.

There's potentially a drawback to using any of these sleep states exclusively, as opposed to shutting down formally. Namely, Windows gets cranky when it has had too much sleep: performance worsens, some features stop working properly, and applications are more prone to crashes. (To be fair, this is less of an issue with Windows 7 than previous versions.) The remedy is to shut down and restart Windows periodically, at least once or twice a week (more for heavy use), which, of course, somewhat negates the overall time saved by employing sleep features in the first place. Alternatively, you may choose to avoid sleeping your PC altogether; you'll enjoy a more stable environment, but you'll lose the convenience of the "instant on" feature.

The solicitude of Sleep

Instead, Windows 7 provides only a hybrid of Standby and Hibernate (discussed next) which Microsoft calls Sleep mode. Basically, Sleep puts your PC in the S3 power-saving mode just like Standby, but only after saving the stuff in your PC's memory to disk-somewhat like Hibernate-so you won't lose data if you cut power to your PC.

So, Sleep is the best of both worlds, right?

Not so fast. First of all, Sleep doesn't work that well with some older PCs; cut power to your computer, and Windows may lose the saved state from the last session after all, making it no better than Standby. Second, Sleep doesn't completely power off your PC, which means that it's still using more electricity than it would if it were truly powered off. (Although on laptops, Sleep should eventually put the machine in full-fledged hibernate mode, which uses no power.)

If your Windows session doesn't survive a Sleep, you might not have the hybrid sleep feature enabled. Open the Power Options page in Control Panel, click the Change plan settings link next to the currently selected plan, and then click the Change advanced power settings link. If necessary, click the Change settings that are currently unavailable link. Expand the Sleep branch, set the Allow hybrid sleep option to On, and click OK.

Conversely, if you'd prefer the quickest possible startup and shutdown, and you're willing to give up the benefits of hibernation, set the Allow hybrid sleep option to Off. This effectively gives Windows a bare Standby feature; just don't be surprised when Windows can't resume your previous session because your PC lost power while it was asleep.

Hibernate, for real this time

If you're not happy with 7's Sleep mode, you can instead use the true Hibernate feature that's hidden by default in Windows 7.

Laptop PCs often employ Hibernation to save your state when the battery gets dangerously low (and you're not using AC power); if this applies to you, Hibernation may already be enabled. On the other hand, if your PC crashes when the battery runs out of juice, or simply can't resume once you plug it back in, you'll need to enable Hibernation to fix the problem.

Open a Command Prompt window in administrator mode: open the Start menu, type command in the Search box, right-click the Command Prompt icon that appears, and select Run as administrator. Then, type:

powercfg /hibernate on

at the prompt and press Enter. If the command returns you to the prompt with no message, the change was successful, and you can type exit or close the Command Prompt window. The change takes effect right away, but you'll need to close and reopen any Power Options windows (next) to see the new options.

What Is hiberfil.sys?

To avoid some of the drawbacks of Windows' Sleep power-saving mode, you can hibernate your PC.Hibernate saves a copy of everything in your PC's memory (RAM) onto your hard disk before it shuts down.

Windows uses the file hiberfil.sys, stored in the root folder of your hard disk, to hold your hibernation data. Because it must hold everything in memory, its size is the same as the amount of installed system memory. Have 2 GB of RAM? You'll see a 2 GB hiberfil.sys file on your hard disk that Windows won't let you delete.

Windows creates the hiberfil.sys file automatically when you turn on the Hibernate feature; the only way to delete the file is to turn off Hibernate.

To do this, open a Command Prompt window in administrator mode and type this command at the prompt:

powercfg /hibernate off

Then press Enter. If the command returns you to the prompt with no message, the change was successful, and hiberfil.sys should be gone.

If hiberfil.sys is still there, hibernation may've already been turned off, and the file may be left over from an older version of Windows. Another way to delete the file is to use the Disk Cleanup tool (cleanmgr.exe); just select the drive containing the file, place a checkmark next to Hibernation File Cleaner in the Files to delete list, and click OK.