How to Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 10


Hibernate is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops, and might not be available for all PCs (PCs with InstantGo don't have the hibernate option). 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 to the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys), and then turns off your computer. Hibernate uses less power than sleep and when you start up the PC again, you’re back to where you left off (though not as fast as sleep). Use hibernation when you know that you won't use your laptop or tablet for an extended period and won't have an opportunity to charge the battery during that time.

• By default, the size of the hidden protected OS "C:\hiberfil.sys" file is 40% of the total amount of RAM installed on your computer.
• If you disable hibernate, fast startup will also get disabled.
• If you disable hibernate, hibernate will no longer show in the Power menu.

Fast startup requires that hibernate be enabled. If you only want to use fast startup and don't plan on using hibernate, then you can specify the hiberfile type as reduced to significantly reduce the size of the hiberfile (C:\hiberfil.sys) to about half of its full size.

If you want to use hibernate, then be sure to specify the hiberfile type as full.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable hibernate and restore or delete the hiberfil.sys file in Windows 10.

You must be signed in to Windows as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

For a Windows 11 version of this tutorial, see:

Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 11

Contents

• Option One: Enable or Disable Hibernate in Elevated Command Prompt
• Option Two: Enable or Disable Hibernate using a REG File Download
• Option Three: Enable or Disable Hibernate in Registry Editor
• Option Four: To Turn On or Off Hibernate in Advanced Power Options

OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable Hibernate in Elevated Command Prompt

1 Open an elevated command prompt.

2 Do step 3 or step 4 below for what you would like to do.

 3. To Enable Hibernate

This step will restore the hiberfil.sys file and the Hibernate after Power Option under Sleep.

A) Copy and paste either command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

powercfg -h on

OR

powercfg -hibernate on

C) If you would like to have hibernate turned on, then you could do step 2 in OPTION FOUR below.

D) If you like, you may also wish to add or remove Hibernate in power button menus.

E) Go to step 5 below.

 4. To Disable Hibernate

This step will disable hibernation, disable fast startup, delete the hiberfil.sys file, and remove the Hibernate after power option under Sleep.

A) Copy and paste either command below into the elevated command prompt, and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

powercfg -h off

OR

powercfg -hibernate off

B) Check your advanced power options to make sure that the Critical battery action and Low battery action settings under Battery are not set to Hibernate, and go to step 5 below. (see screenshot below)

5 You can now close the elevated command prompt if you like.

OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable Hibernate using a REG File Download

1 Do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.

 2. To Enable Hibernate

This step will restore the hiberfil.sys file and the Hibernate after Power Option under Sleep.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_Hibernate.reg

Download

 3. To Disable Hibernate

This step will disable hibernation, disable fast startup, delete the hiberfil.sys file, and remove the Hibernate after power option under Sleep.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_Hibernate.reg

Download

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 Restart the computer to apply the changes.

8 If you enabled hibernate and would like to have hibernate turned on, then you could do step 2 in OPTION FOUR below.

9 If you like, you may also wish to add or remove Hibernate in power button menus.

10 When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

OPTION THREE

Enable or Disable Hibernate in Registry Editor

1 Press the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2 If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

3 In Registry Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power

4 In the right pane of the Power key, double click/tap on HibernateEnabledDefault, and do step 5 (enable) or step 6 (disable) below for what you would like to do. (see screenshot above)

 5. To Enable Hibernate

This step will restore the hiberfil.sys file and the Hibernate after Power Option under Sleep.

A) Type in 1, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

 6. To Disable Hibernate

This step will disable hibernation, disable fast startup, delete the hiberfil.sys file, and remove the Hibernate after power option under Sleep.

A) Type in 0 (zero), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)



B) Check your advanced power options to make sure that the Critical battery action and Low battery action settings under Battery are not set to Hibernate, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

7 Close regedit, and restart the computer to apply the changes.

8 If you enabled hibernate and would like to have hibernate turned on, then you could do step 2 in OPTION FOUR below.

9 If you like, you may also wish to add or remove Hibernate in power button menus.

OPTION FOUR

To Turn On or Off Hibernate in Advanced Power Options

This option does not disable hibernate, but only turns hibernate on or off for your power plan.

1 Do either step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.

 2. To Turn On Hibernate

A) If you have not already, then you will need to enable hibernate using either Option One, Option Two, or Option Three above first.

B) Open the Advanced Power Plan Settings for your power plan, then expand Sleep. (see screenshot below step 4)

C) Under Hibernate after, set the Setting (Minutes) to how many minutes you want your computer to sit idle for before it goes into hibernation. (see screenshot step 4)

D) Go to step 4.

 3. To Turn Off Hibernate

If you disabled hibernate using Option One, Option Two, or Option Three above, then there's no need to do this step since Hibernate after will no longer be listed in your power options.

A) Open the Advanced Power Plan Settings for your power plan, and expand Sleep. (see screenshot below step 4)

B) Under Hibernate after, set the Setting (Minutes) to Never. (see screenshot below step 4)

C) Go to step 4.

4 When finished, click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn Brink

Related Tutorials

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• How to Hibernate the Computer in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Hibernate from Power menu in Windows 10
• How to Change Power Plan Settings in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10
• How to Specify Hiberfile Type as Full or Reduced in Windows 10
• How to See Sleep States Available on your Windows 10 PC
• How to Enable or Disable Windows To Go Workspace using Hibernate on Windows 10 PC
• How to Add or Remove 'Hibernate after' from Power Options in Windows

Windows 11 Tutorials