{"id":3567,"date":"2016-01-05T12:10:37","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T20:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/?p=3567"},"modified":"2016-01-06T20:46:32","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T04:46:32","slug":"four-windows-10-power-settings-you-should-probably-change-hibernation-and-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/four-windows-10-power-settings-you-should-probably-change-hibernation-and-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Windows 10 Power Settings You Should Probably Change (Hibernation and Sleep)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jan 5, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Out of the box, Windows 10 comes with some power settings that, depending on your usage habits, probably should be changed. These may be especially important if you are using a Windows tablet, but they are also useful for laptops, and they all have to do with hibernation and sleep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hibernation vs. Sleep<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know most of you are aware of the differences between hibernation and sleep on a computer. But if not, here\u2019s the story. Hibernation shuts power use off completely—zero battery drain—and stores the state of your computer in the hard drive. That way when you start the computer again, even months later, it starts much faster than a fresh boot of the computer, so it\u2019s up in about thirty seconds. But that\u2019s still much slower<\/em> than using sleep. Sleep stores the state of your computer in RAM, and so resumes much faster; you\u2019ll be up and running in two to five seconds in some cases. However, sleep uses a fair amount of battery power. So it makes sense to decide which of these you want to use and when. The default settings are, in my opinion, not ideal for most usage cases.<\/p>\n

The Changes<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following four settings changes are the ones I recommend you change in Windows 10, especially if you are using a Windows tablet.\u00a0 The first one is a bit complicated, but they are much easier after that.<\/p>\n

By the way, try to understand what\u2019s going on before doing these settings. If they aren\u2019t favorable to your particular work situation or usage habits, then don’t do them! Or perhaps the steps aren\u2019t quite the same on your computer. If that happens, leave a comment stating what\u2019s up so others can learn from what you learned (but sorry, we can’t debug your Windows settings).
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Change #1 for a Windows Tablet: Change the Time after which Sleep Changes to Hibernate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you put a Windows laptop or tablet into sleep<\/em> and leave it unplugged, after a certain length of time the laptop will automatically cut over to hibernation<\/em>. That\u2019s so that you don\u2019t completely deplete your battery and lose any data that\u2019s active at the time you put it to sleep. On past Windows tablets and laptops I\u2019ve owned, I recall it being days<\/em> before hibernation kicked in automatically like that, which was good.<\/p>\n

But these days, you will see unplugged Windows laptops cutting over from sleep to hibernation in only a few hours<\/em>. That means, after only a few hours, the tablet is waking up really slowly. That\u2019s okay for a laptop that you only use for big blocks of work. But for a tablet,<\/em> like a Surface 3, if you open it to do short and quick tasks a couple times a day, it\u2019s frustrating to have to wait thirty or more seconds each time. I feel tablets should be nearly instant-on<\/em> almost all the time because we use them like smartphones—for quick app use. It shouldn\u2019t take almost a minute to get into your tablet just to check the weather, for example.<\/p>\n

Called Hibernate After<\/strong><\/p>\n

The time it takes to cut over to hibernation is called the Hibernate After time and the default setting for this varies by manufacturer. On the Surface 3 (non Pro) it is only four hours. On my Lenovo Yoga 900 hybrid it is only three<\/em> hours, even worse. I\u2019d say that for any device you use in quick spurts on and off, like a tablet, it should be at least twelve<\/em> hours so sleep lasts longer. The setting to increase the Hibernate After time is buried relatively deep, and here are the instructions to change it. (by the way, if you make this setting change on a Surface<\/em>, be sure to do setting #2 below as well).<\/p>\n

The Hibernate After Setting Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Unplug your power cord to ensure that the whatever power plan that corresponds with your battery mode is in effect.<\/li>\n
  2. Activate the Start Menu (not just the start screen) and type in \u201cPower & Sleep Settings\u201d (be sure to use the ampersand) and select it. That will open the Settings window to the correct pane.<\/li>\n
  3. Ensure Power & Sleep is displayed at the top (or selected on the left if window is wider).<\/li>\n
  4. Click Additional Power Settings at the bottom of the main pane.<\/li>\n
  5. For the currently active and selected plan, click Change Plan Settings to the right.<\/li>\n
  6. On the next screen, click Change Advanced Power Settings at the bottom.<\/li>\n
  7. In the Power Options dialog box that opens, Advanced Setting tab, scroll down to Sleep, and expand the commands under it. (If anything from here in steps below on is grayed out, you may need to click the Change Settings that are Currently Unavailable link near the top).<\/li>\n
  8. Expand Hibernate After<\/li>\n
  9. Change On Battery to 720 minutes (that\u2019s 12 hours), or what seems right to you.<\/li>\n
  10. Also, just to be cautious, scroll down to the Battery item and expand that. Then expand Critical Battery Action, and make sure Hibernate is chosen for both On Battery and Plugged In. They should be already set that way, but it\u2019s good to confirm that. This overrides the above timing if your battery is already really low when you put your laptop to sleep.<\/li>\n
  11. Click Okay all the way out.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Change #2 Surface Tablet: Turn Off Stay Connected to Wi-Fi while Asleep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Once you make the setting above, where sleep stays engaged for a much longer length of time, you\u2019ll next want to turn off another setting. But it\u2019s not available on all laptops—I\u2019ve only seen it on the Surface line. If you have one of those, then find and turn off the Stay connected to Wi-Fi while asleep<\/em> setting.<\/p>\n

    This setting consumes a huge amount of battery power on my Surface 3 (non-Pro). For example, I notice a 20% drop in battery every eight hours while asleep. After I turned this setting off, I only saw a 2 to 3% drop in battery every eight hours. So if you make setting number 1 above, and you have a Surface tablet, this is a worthy next setting change to make.<\/p>\n

    You may wonder, why is this set on by default in the first place? It\u2019s on so that your Windows Store Mail app can receive messages while the tablet is in sleep mode, just like your cell phone does and your iPad does. That way there\u2019s no wait for mail to load when you go to check email after reactivating the tablet. And it will wake the tablet up for alarms and such. But, as I described, it comes at a huge battery expense. Also, it doesn\u2019t help desktop Outlook at all, so I don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth it.<\/p>\n

    Here\u2019s How To turn off WiFi While Asleep:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Activate the Start Menu (not just the start screen if in tablet mode) and type in \u201cPower & Sleep Settings\u201d (be sure to use the ampersand) and select it. That will open the Settings window to the correct pane.<\/li>\n
    2. Ensure Power & Sleep is displayed at the top (or selected on the left if window is wider).<\/li>\n
    3. In the main pane scroll down to the Wi-Fi section and in that section turn off On Battery Power, Stay Connected to Wi-Fi while Asleep. If you don\u2019t have a Wi-Fi section, then this setting is not applicable to your laptop, and there is nothing for you to do.<\/em><\/li>\n
    4. Close the window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

       <\/p>\n

      #3 All Windows 10 laptops and tablets: Add Hibernate back to the Power menu<\/strong><\/p>\n

      My next suggested change is this: add the Hibernate command back to the Power menu. Something new in Windows 10 is that Microsoft removed the Hibernate command from the standard Power menu; it now only has Sleep, Shut Down, and Restart. I guess they figured sleep was just so good nobody would want hibernation. But as I said, sleep consumes a fair amount of power, particularly if you don\u2019t make the setting number 2, as I described above; if you make setting number 1, and not number 2 on a Surface, you can run your battery down fairly low in under one day of sleep.<\/p>\n

      So it now also makes sense to put your tablet or laptop directly into hibernation before you put it away for a while, for example before you pack it in a suitcase for a long trip. That way you\u2019ll have lots of battery later when you wake it back up. But as I said, you can no longer do it manually in Windows 10 unless you add the Hibernation command back to the Power menu. Here\u2019s how to do that:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Activate the Start Menu (not just the start screen if in tablet mode) and type in \u201cPower Options\u201d and select it. That will open the Control Panel window for Power Options.<\/li>\n
      2. On the left click Choose What the Power Buttons Do<\/li>\n
      3. Scroll down to Shutdown Settings section of that window<\/li>\n
      4. Activate the check box next to Hibernate, Show in Power menu. (If that is grayed out and unavailable to change, then first, up near the top click the Change Settings that Are Currently Unavailable link. Then try again)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

        #4 All Windows 10 laptops and tablets: No sleep when plugged in<\/strong><\/p>\n

        Another default setting in Windows 10 that you probably should change is to undo the following: even if your laptop is plugged in, it will automatically go to sleep after only about 20 minutes. However, I leave my main laptop plugged in almost all the time and use it as a desktop computer with an external monitor. So I don\u2019t want it to sleep after 20 minutes. Otherwise, I won\u2019t be getting mail in desktop Outlook, and so when I resume I have to wait for Outlook to catch up.<\/p>\n

        If, like me, you use your laptop as a desktop, plugged in most the time, I\u2019d turn that setting off. If you are concerned about using a lot of electricity, keep in mind that the main power consumer is the monitor<\/em>. And there\u2019s a separate setting (also shown below) that turns the monitor off without putting the computer to sleep. So here are the setting changes I recommend you make:<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Activate the Start Menu (not just the start screen if in tablet mode) and type in \u201cPower & Sleep Settings\u201d (be sure to use the ampersand) and select it. That will open the Settings window for the correct pane.<\/li>\n
        2. Ensure Power & Sleep is displayed at the top (or selected on the left if window is wider).<\/li>\n
        3. On the right, in the Screen section, make sure the When Plugged in, Turn Off After setting is set to a value reasonable for the type of work you do; I set mine to 10 or 15 minutes (keep in mind this may engage during movies if you don\u2019t use the mouse).<\/li>\n
        4. Below that, in the Sleep section, make sure the When Plugged in PC Goes to Sleep After setting is set to Never<\/em>. This is the key setting, so your laptop stays alive even if monitor is off.<\/li>\n
        5. Close the window.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

           <\/p>\n

          Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

          That\u2019s it. With these four settings, your Windows tablet or laptop will probably be much more usable. But again, think them through to make sure they make sense for your work patterns, and adjust them accordingly. If you have added insights, put them in the comments below.<\/p>\n

          One more thing, if you are using a Windows tablet with desktop Outlook, be sure to see my other recommended settings<\/a> for that too.<\/p>\n

          Michael<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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