Hibernation is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops. When you hibernate your PC, it saves the current state of your system (open documents, running applications, etc.) to the hard disk and then completely powers off your computer. When you power it back on, your system resumes from where you left off. This is particularly useful for conserving battery life while ensuring you can quickly resume your work.

In this article, we will explore how to enable and manage hibernation in Windows using various methods, including the Command Prompt (CMD) and PowerShell.

Enabling Hibernation via Command Prompt

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:

• Press Win + X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)" or "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".

2. Enable Hibernation:

• Type the following command and press Enter:
  

   powercfg /hibernate on

3. Verify Hibernation is Enabled:

• To ensure hibernation is enabled, type:
  

   powercfg /a



• This command lists all the available sleep states. Look for "Hibernate" in the output.

Disabling Hibernation via Command Prompt

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator:

• Press Win + X and select "Command Prompt (Admin)" or "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".

2. Disable Hibernation:

• Type the following command and press Enter:
  

   powercfg /hibernate off

3. Verify Hibernation is Disabled:

• To ensure hibernation is disabled, type:
  

   powercfg /a



• This command lists all the available sleep states. "Hibernate" should no longer be listed.

Enabling Hibernation via PowerShell

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator:

• Press Win + X and select "Windows PowerShell (Admin)".

2. Enable Hibernation:

• Type the following command and press Enter:
  

   powercfg /hibernate on

3. Verify Hibernation is Enabled:

• To ensure hibernation is enabled, type:
  

   powercfg /a



• This command lists all the available sleep states. Look for "Hibernate" in the output.

Adding Hibernate to the Power Menu

1. Open Control Panel:

• Press Win + S, type "Control Panel", and press Enter.

2. Navigate to Power Options:

• Go to "System and Security" > "Power Options".

3. Choose What the Power Buttons Do:

• Click on "Choose what the power buttons do" from the left sidebar.

4. Change Settings that are Currently Unavailable:

• Click on "Change settings that are currently unavailable".

5. Enable Hibernate Option:

• Under "Shutdown settings", check the box next to "Hibernate".


• Click "Save changes".

Examples

Example 1: Enabling Hibernation via CMD

powercfg /hibernate on

powercfg /a

Example 2: Disabling Hibernation via CMD

powercfg /hibernate off

powercfg /a

Example 3: Enabling Hibernation via PowerShell

powercfg /hibernate on

powercfg /a

Conclusion

Hibernation is a useful feature for saving power and quickly resuming your work. By following the steps outlined above, you can easily enable or disable hibernation on your Windows machine using CMD or PowerShell. Additionally, you can add the hibernate option to your power menu for quick access.