Turn off Windows: Tips, tricks and troubleshooting Multiple off switches Save space on C: Finally sleep through the night Boot oddities Parallel installed operating system Digression: just a second faster? Read the article in c’t 15/2023
Previously, articles about booting Windows focused on why it takes so terribly long. But that seems to be a largely solved problem, at least we rarely get readers’ inquiries about it. Today it’s different: Why can I find the “Hibernate” option in the start menu on my notebook, but not on the desktop PC? How do I enable hybrid standby? Why does the Hiberfil.sys file take up so much space on C:\ and what is it for anyway? Why does the PC not boot from the USB stick? Why doesn’t the PC let me enter the BIOS setup? Why does the boot menu sometimes appear so late in parallel installations? This article collects various tips on such questions and has a few more in store.
In order to read this article, we assume that you know what is meant by “hibernation”, “fast startup” and “energy saving”. If necessary, you can find the necessary information in a separate article.
Sometimes like this; sometimes like that
Do you always exit Windows the same way? That might be better. As a reminder, with hibernation and quick start you buy the advantage of “then without power” because it takes a while before the PC is ready to use when it wakes up (although it takes less time than with a cold start). “Save energy”, on the other hand, requires a constant power supply, but Windows is up and running again fairly quickly when it is reactivated. Hence the first tip: Don’t commit yourself to one of the two methods. Instead, use the “Energy saving” option during the day. Only at the end of the day do you choose either hibernation (then Windows will wake up the next day with all its applications the way you left it the night before). Or you click “Shut down” (which Windows means “quick start”), whereupon Windows closes all applications and logs out of your user account, but only goes to sleep itself – then the next day it feels like Windows has just started up.
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