I see my computer has the feature to Hibernate and Sleep, what exactly do those do?? Should I use them and would they close my applications?? Is it like shutting down your computer?

All Windows machines with XP or better have the feature to Standby (Sleep) or Hibernate.? These features are heavily underrated and extremely useful for saving power and energy while preserving the longevity of your machine.? If you are someone who likes to have their computer ready at a moments notice throughout the day, these features are definitely for you.? Read ahead and determine which one suits your daily needs.

Standby/Sleep: Many computers have the feature to sleep or standby.? While this does not shut down the computer, *as in do not unplug the cord or battery from the machine*, it typically uses a fraction of the required power to keep the machine powering only the memory; about 1W on a mobile PC and 3W on a desktop PC (Windows 7).

When you put your computer in sleep mode, it can be powered on by a flicker of the mouse or random button on your keyboard.? It resumes instantly to your previous state, but keep in mind this does not keep you signed on any type of Instant Messenger or similar service.? This setting is perfect for users who do not need to have their machine signed on to any type of program, while having the ability to access their machine within a matter of seconds at any given moment.

Hibernation😕 Personally, I recommend everyone to start using this feature as it saves tons of power while preserving the image of your desktop at any given point.? To break the hibernation feature down to simple terms, it writes an image of your RAM to your hard disk and then turns the computer off completely so you can unplug the power source or battery from the computer itself and not lose your desktop.? When you turn on the computer (as you would when you power it off) the RAM image is reloaded and you are back to where you left off.? This will save any Word document, Internet page you were surfing?etc.

The major advantage to using Hibernation rather then Shut Down for your computer is that it resumes faster then a normal reboot, plus you can keep your old desktop image to resume work on.? I recommend using the Shut Down feature every so often to ?clean out? and ?wipe? the old images that may be stores in your Hibernation folder.

Explore these two options and see which you like better.? Send us a comment if you found one of these two to be a better alternative then you might?ve been using!