How To: Enable Or Disable Hibernate Option In Windows 7
Posted January 19, 2009 – 6:21 pm in: Windows 7, Windows 7 GuidesIn Windows XP enabling Hibernate option was a very easy task. One could navigate to Control Panel, Power Options and then Hibernate tab to enable or disable Hibernation feature. But in Windows 7, we have to follow a different approach to do the same job.
If you are not aware of Hibernate feature, Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. While sleep puts your work and settings in memory and draws a small amount of power, hibernation puts your open documents and programs on your hard disk and then turns off your computer. Of all the power-saving states in Windows, hibernation uses the least amount of power. On a laptop, use hibernation when you know that you won’t use your laptop for an extended period and won’t have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.
So if you are really going to use this feature then you need to enable it by doing a simple procedure as mentioned below:
Step 1: Open Command Prompt with Administrator rights. To open Command Prompt, type CMD in Start menu and then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open the Command Prompt with Admin rights.
Step 2: Next, type the below command and hit enter:
powercfg /hibernate on
Step 3: Type exit and hit enter to close the Command Prompt.
Step 4: If you can’t see the Hibernate option in Start menu then continue with the following tasks:
A. Type Power Options in Start menu and hit enter.
B. In the left pane, open the link labeled “Change when the computer sleeps” and then open the link “Change advanced power settings”.
C. Under the Advanced Sleep options, expand the Sleep tree and turn off Hybrid Sleep.
D. Now go back to Start menu to see the new Hibernate entry. That’s it!
How to enable Hibernate option in Windows 8, how to reduce Hibernation file size and create a keyboard shortcut to Hibernate option guide might also interest you.
Tags: Windows 7
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176 Comments
it restarts after hitting hibernate and resumes again after reboot
Thanks for the info. The second part was more useful.
Remove hibernate file by using in-built disk cleanup tool. And, then try again.
I did this and hibernate appeared in the start menu. I clicked it and my system did hibernate – for a few minutes. Then it started again.
Strange, it should work fine.
Thank you, works great!
it’s good help thanck you so much.
Great job man for Win 7 the second option worked great i thought the old school way with vista -h on CMD would work but it didnt guess Win 7 wants u too be more user friendly CLICK CLICK no more typing what u want !
THANKS thou!
Very very thanks for this
i was looking for this for some days ago
Hibernate still does not appear in the start menu, even after typing “powercfg /hibernate on” into the command prompt and disabling hybrid sleep.
computer doesn’t stay in hibernation.
turns on again after a few seconds.
It works great, thanks!
Great! I was trying to do this for some time now.
Thanks a lot, it works fine!
I have the RC candidate installed on a desktop and just upgraded a dell xps 1330 from vista to 7. I can’t get either to ever wake up from hibernation. Both worked great with VISTA hibernation. Other than that 7 is nice, certainly not great.
Thanks for this. Even Windows 7 ‘Help and Support’ doesn’t cover this, which I was surprised by.
Hi there,
I tried to execute the powercfg command. However even after running the command as an Administrator, it gives me a message saying that I do not have the permission to make changes to the power configuration. I am having a 7000 build.
Please advise.
Regards,
Davion.
Thanks that was very helpful
Thanks for the help. It is strange that 7 makes Hibernate option off on the start menu by default, and requires the user to turn off Hybird sleep, so hibernate is on.
I really didn’t know that I have to disable hybrid sleep before use hibernation. Thanks a lot!
Man! CONGRATULATIONS!! Even B. Gates can’t explain it better. Suffering for months and a genius explanation. THANK YOU!
great,love you so much.i could’t find it anywhere else.
I am trying to set my Win 7 to hibernate, so if the mouse is moved it will not come out of hibernation.
My Win Vista was pretty simple to set up but I am having trouble finding the solution.
Thanks
Thank you, that helped me.
Thank you so much for this guide. It helped me get it back! I needed it because I was going to move my computer upstairs, and I still had work on it to get done. I just can’t afford a shutdown, nor sleep is possible, for I’m pulling the plug (duh).
Thanks again
Thanks for the guide, the seccond part was excellent… However appearently in my cmd, it’s called “powercfg -h on” instead of “powercfg /hibernate on”. Just a little notice. Thanks anyway
Thank you, very helpful post, I’ll be reading more of your stuff in future…!
Great.
I’ve been looking for this for ages
Thanks
very simple and perfect!!!! thanks a lot.
Thank you so much for this! After Windows 7 updated, I lost my hibernate feature. I’m so glad it’s back!
great explanation!! THANKS! <3
Thank yo so much….. stupid microsoft, why make it so hard.
My God, maybe Microsoft should contract you out for their technical support. They could not even tell me how to enable hibernation in windows 7 64. They led me throught the cmd entry, but your site took me further to correct the issue. Thank you sooo much!
Yes the much needed “Hibernate” feature works superb now on my pc, and very nice explanations. For eight months I have been using W 7 RC candidate, w/o hibernate feature. The standby feature makes the pc start even with slightest mouse movement, or accidental keybrd press. Thanks for the post.
Ah… great buddy, thank u veryyyyyyyyy muchhhhhhhhhh…
Thanks so much! Really appreciate this
Ctrl + Shift + Enter does nothing. I still don’t have the rights to switch on hibernation, despite the fact that mine is the sole account on the computer and therefore must have administrative rights.
Thanks a tonne!
Simple and easy to understand.
Did this in a minute and a half….
Great!
windows 7 64bit same problem of dissapearing hibernate option. your trick works here as well.
well hidden option
run cmd in admin mode: put shortcut on desktop and rightclick-properties-shortcut-advanced-’run as admin’
Use Ctrl(right)+Shift(right)+Enter .. then u’ll get the administrative rights …
Great! It worked… Thanks a lot!
when i type powercfg /hibernate on it says im not allowed to do it
@Imran
Please make sure that you are opening the Command Prompt with administrator rights.
Windows 7
My wife’s computer would wake up from hibernation often. After a while I noticed when the telephone rang, the computer would wake up! Our son, the computer expert, adjusted the bios accordingly and it solved the problem.
thanks. worked great!
Thanks you very much!
It worked the second option was unknown to me.. thanks a lot for that
Worked great, thanks!
Thanks, works like magic!
Thanks for the post, it works for me.. cheers.
Thanks for this good post. it helps me
when i tried the above procedure..my pc says..u don’t hav the permission to enable or disable hibernate option
Hey man thnx!!!!!!!!!
@ Sid
You need to have the admin rights to perform this task. So make sure that you have opened Command Prompt as Administrator.
thankyou
so helpful
I was looking for the way to do that
thank you s very much!!!
my laptop gets hibernate after hitting hibernate but when i power on then it doesn’t resumes then when i press ctrl+alt+del then it resumes. pls give me a solution………….
Thank you so much! this really worked. It’s kind of lame how windows is so hard to use lol. Have to look up these silly instructions to get what we want!
Hi
Its really helpful document. Thanks a lot. I expect more help from you next time.
–Rana
followed cmd instructions. Got back: The request is not supported.The following items are preventing hibernation on this system. There are one or more legacy drivers installed: Aten1pt
I had hibernation and sleep at first but some update turned them off.
Thanks guys it worked just fine
Thanks
For those who still after going through with these steps dont get to see the hibernation option, try changing your computer power option to Balanced, since thats the main profile you change. Or change all of the 3 profiles in the advanced power settings to enable hibernation on the 3 power consumption profiles.
thank you very much! it was very understanding!
Thank You for your info. Itz really helpful!!!
MY daughter’s laptop switched itself off after initiating step two above and i cannot get it to switch on again. Any suggestions what to try please??
Thanks great,
It worked!
Thank you very very much, It worked!
Nice tricks and it worked on my Windows 7!
Thanks for sharing man…
Thanks a million!! It worked on my home assembled Asus motherboard computer!!
Thanks dude
Thanks a lot, helped a lot
Thanks, I’ve been searching for this info all over the web .. they all have the first part only, which clearly did not work for me. Thanks again
Thanks a bunch!
Thanks a lot..
thank u so much it was ver helpful to me
Very USeful Thanks
Very USeful Thanks a lot
Wow. That really worked. Thanks a ton!
thank u …the second method is very easy…
thanks …its works…
I followed a different follow-through and it wasn’t specific enough. I didn’t know about the administrator rights thing.
This one helped! THANKS!
Thanks so much! It really helped! Especially since after having to reinstall windows 7 I forgot how I even enabled hibernate ;P
Thanks! Was a simple trick, done the job I wanted.
I have known about this methord of turning on Hibernation for some time, but I have not been able to find a way to keep the machine turned on for more than 5 seconds ofter trying to hibernate. If you can come up with a way to do that I would be a happy man..
thanx it really works…
thanxx..
thanx its workin…..second part is useful
Thanks………….dude…:))))))))
Thank You…!
thanks
Thank you so much… It worked for me…
Thank u so much buddy. it works
thanks it worked fine
Thank u! Solved the problem!
yah…. thnkzz u so much itzz relly helpful for me ….
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate your help, IT WORKED ON VISTA x64! LOVE U!
Thanks for your tip. Until I visited this page, I didn’t even realize the Hibernate options wasn’t present in my Start Menu and the Desktop Alt-F4 window. Before I just couldn’t get my system to go into Hibernate mode. I haven’t tested it yet. But I suspect it will work now.
thanks.. it works fine!!!
Thank you! Simple and straight forward!
Thank you! This solved my problem!
THANK YOU! FINALLY figured it out
Thanks!
Very thanks for this! It worked on my Win 7 pro 64 upgraded from Vista Business 64.
THANK YOU !!!! Shokraaan
Thanks it work Successfull
superb great post i was looking for the way to enable hibernate feature and was really strucked but this post helped me to solve my problem thanks again.
Tested and verified working with Win7 Enterprise 64bit also. Thanks.
Thanks! It WORKED
thanks
thanks a LOT!!! The second option was the one that worked for me. God Bless you.
tell me how to hibernate,run program and automatically shutdown
it really works…..my hibernate option has started appearing now……….thans for the help
great !
It’s helpful
atlas…i found it here…thank you very much!!!!ur such a big help….
I read this a few months ago, and after a frustrating trip through the instructions, couldn’t get it to work.
I don’t know where I went wrong, perhaps it was that I was just getting used to Windows 7… but I missed that last part, with the Hybrid Sleep option.
Thankfully I researched this page again, and found exactly what I needed!
Thank you for this post!
thank you sooooo much. It really worked for me and i think the second part is more useful.
Thanks, it worked like a charm!!!!!
Thanks alot!
thanks!! it worked!
It was helpful,thanks.
Thanks alot
it was awesome was very nice it helped me too much thanks
I went through many pages offering many weird solutions……none solved my problem b4 hittn ths page….thx alot
Won’t work.
Spot on… Well written article
Works like a charm, thanks!
Thanks!!!
Just dropped a comment to say thank you very much. I wonder why it was disabled in the first place though.
Why not just use Hybrid Sleep. It’s better.
Great and as people have said, good explanation. And my thanks go to you for you for your time in preparing it for others to use.
If I could add one thing, between step C and D, in order to see the changes you’ll need to press the APPLY button at the bottom. I say this, since I was checking the Start Menu and nothing changed, then I saw the APPLY button and voila! There it was.
So thanks again, and preciate your efforts.
Thanks a lot
Works very well. Thanks.
thanks, like the shortcut
Thanks so much for sharing this useful information…
I have been wondering why I couldn’t see the hibernate entry on the start menu.
Great WOK Good Gooddd
Thank you very much!
I cannot disable my hybrid sleep. I have no idea why ): please assist
Thank You very much
really useful info
thanks a lot
Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Thank u so much!!!
It really wored!!
Your forum was one of the rare ones that gives the accurate info to the point
THANKS FOR THIS.
A VERY BIG HELP
It really helps. Thank you!
Thank You So Much…:D
For those, whose computer restarts after hibernating:
1. in cmd(run as admin): powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
2. this command shows you, which devices are enabled to wake your machine up.
3. After it just check these devices in the device manager and click right button->properties->power management->allow this device to wake the computer->disable it…
And I also suggest you this article: http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/threads/solved-windows-7-pro-x64-sp1-hibernate-restarts-system-devcon-does-not-work.106718/
Good luck!
thank you so much
Thank you. Works great.
It works. Thank you.
thanx that was great.
but why the command prompt commands shown above does not work on my computer?
Thank you, thank you, thank you! <3
Its real great ist working.thanks dud
Fun fact:
In my Windows 7 Ultimate (x64), foreign language (PT-PT), the setting “Allow hybrid sleep” is only enabled when set to “Off” and disabled when set to “On”, at least the option is only visible when hybrid mode is disabled. Meaning that after running “powercfg /hibernate on”, the hybrid sleep option is set to “On” by default yet “Hibernate is nowhere to be seen until I set hybrid sleep to “Off”.
that was very useful, 100% works!
thank you very much
ThaNX Alot 4 ur heLP
thank you very much man. it was very helpful.
Thank you so much, it easily activated on my Win7 Home Premium.
wau! that’s great finally the second option works best, I had hustled for location Hybrid sleep mode yet its not in my advance option for power in my laptop, THANKS MEN!
Thank u so much dude… its working
hi! Thanks!
This is the best explanation that I found after trying many tutorials. Good job
I decided to check the power config first and turned off Hybrid sleep. This caused hibernation to work properly. Article was very helpful, Thanks.
Thanks! So solve the biggest problem in my life!
WoW Thanks! It works quite well for me.
Thanks alot……
Thanks! I just did this and I can now use Hibernate.
thanks.. it worked.
thanks for the guidance
it’s really good….
working good…
This is what I’m looking for! Thanks mate!
thanks its working
Thanks so much! I don’t know why things like this should be so confusing.
Glad for knowledgeable people like you!
Thanks Mate…. This was usefull
Thank u so much dude… its working
Tnx
I cant get admin rights. Even though im the only user on the pc.