Enable Windows 8 Hibernate and discover why it is better than in Windows 7.

Did you check my evaluation of Windows 8 vs. Windows 7 features in my earlier article? What do you think about the diverse features, such as faster boot times, improved speed, hibernate resume speed, and the ribbon interface in Explorer, when comparing Windows 8 versions to Windows 7?

Alas, the improvement doesn’t stop there? Have you noticed any difference in Windows 8 Hibernate aspects? First of all, hibernation is a time-cum-power-saving feature that allows the contents of RAM to be written to the hard disk before switching off the computer. When you switch back to your computer, it restores the system to the same state as when you turned it off.

For example, you have 8 Microsoft Word documents, 7 Excel sheets, some Notepad programs, and IE and Firefox browser pages open when you selected the “Hibernate” option. So the hibernate option will put your laptop or desktop in power-off condition. When you turn it on again, all these programs will be in the same state as when you turned it off. The only minor change will be that your Internet or network connection will not work.

Well, this feature was one of the commonly used items in Windows 7. So how does this Hibernate feature compare in Windows 8? Let’s take a look ….

How to Enable the Windows 8 Hibernate Option?¶

The instructions for enabling the Hibernate feature in Windows 8 are very straightforward.

• Click the battery icon in the system tray and then select “More power options.”
• Now, select the “Choose what the Power buttons do” option from the left sidebar.
• Now, select the option that says, “Change settings that are currently unavailable.”
• This page will show more options to enable hibernation in Windows 8. Check the “Show Hibernate” option to enable it and click Save Changes.

Now when you access the Charms bar in Windows 8, the Hibernate option is available.

If you can see the above screenshots, you can also access the “Sleep” and “Lock” options in the Charms bar using the same method.

Let’s see another way of enabling the Hibernate function….

Command-Prompt-Method: Windows 8 PowerCFG
Launch cmd, but firstly seek ‘Run as Administrator.’
At the command prompt type
powercfg /?
powercfg -q (Query settings)
powercfg -h on (Hibernation set)

Footnote:
You can disable hibernation with:
powercfg -h off
Exit and restart your computer.

Ok. This is simple. But let’s review some more interesting features in Windows 8 Hibernate!!!

Why You Should Not Delete or Disable hyberfil.sys¶

The above graph shows the boot-up comparisons between Windows 8 and Windows 7. The dark blue colored columns are of Windows 8, and the light-colored ones are Windows 7. As you can see, out of the 30 PCs tested, Windows 8 is a clear winner. Do you know why?

This is because of the special optimization technique that Microsoft used in Windows 8. Instead of shutting down the computer completely, which closes the kernel session, Windows 8 hibernates the corresponding device to save the kernel session. Wow, what a significant method adopted to increase boot times!!!

In Windows 7 we know of a file called hiberfil.sys, which relates to the Hibernate function and can be deleted to gain more usable-disk space. That’s not the case with Windows 8! You should never disable hibernation in Windows 8. This would delete the hiberfil.sys file, leaving no place to save the kernel session.

So, what’s the drawback? You can find that disabling Hibernate in Windows 8 would lead to slower start-up times. Normally, a Windows 8 system would take only 8 seconds or more to resume from a hibernate state, which would take longer otherwise.