How to Enable or Disable Hibernation in Windows: A Complete Guide

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were working late at night, running low on battery, and had to close your laptop, only to reopen it the next day and find everything exactly as you left it? That’s the power of the Hibernate feature in Windows!

Hibernation saves all your open files and applications to the hard drive, allowing you to completely power off your device while retaining your work progress. However, did you know that the hibernation feature is sometimes hidden by default and can also take up significant disk space?

If you want to enable hibernation to better manage power consumption or disable it to free up storage, this guide will walk you through the process step by step.

1. Checking if Hibernate is Enabled in Windows.

To check if the Hibernate option is available:

1. Click the Start menu and select the Power button.
2. Look at the list of available power options. If “Hibernate” is missing, you’ll need to enable it manually.

2. Enable Hibernate Through Control Panel.

Follow these steps to enable hibernation using the Control Panel:

2.1 Open the Control Panel.

1. Press `Win + S`, type Control Panel, and select it from the search results.

2.2 Navigate to Power Options.

1. If your View by setting is “Category“, click System and Security > Power Options.
2. If your View by setting is “Large Icons” or “Small Icons“, click Power Options directly.

2.3 Modify Shutdown Settings.

1. Click Choose what the power buttons do on the left sidebar.
2. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable at the top of the window.
3. Scroll down to the Shutdown settings section. If you see a checkbox for Hibernate, enable it.
4. Click Save changes to apply.

2.4 Check the Start Menu.

1. Open the Start menu, click the Power button, and check if the Hibernate option is now visible.

3. Enable Hibernate Using Command Prompt.

If the Hibernate option is missing from the shutdown settings, follow these steps:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator: Press `Win + S`, type CMD, and select Run as administrator.
2. Enable Hibernate with a Command: Type the following command and press Enter:

   powercfg -h on

3. Verify the Setting in Control Panel: Reopen Control Panel > Power Options and check if Hibernate is now available in Shutdown settings.

4. Disable Hibernate to Free Up Disk Space.

Since hibernation stores system data in a file (`hiberfil.sys`), it can consume several gigabytes of storage. If you want to disable hibernation to free up space, follow these steps:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator: Press `Win + S`, type CMD, and select Run as administrator.
2. Disable Hibernate with a Command: Type the following command and press Enter:

   powercfg -h off

3. Confirm Hibernate is Disabled: Open Control Panel > Power Options and check if the Hibernate option has disappeared from Shutdown settings.

5. Enable or Disable Hibernate via Registry Editor.

For advanced users, the Registry Editor provides another way to modify hibernation settings.

5.1 Steps to Enable or Disable Hibernate via Registry.

1. Open the Registry Editor: Press `Win + S`, type regedit, right click the registry editor and select Run as administrator.
2. Navigate to the Power Settings Key: Go to the following path.

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power

3. Modify the Hibernate Settings:
4. In the right pane, locate:
5. `HibernateEnabled`: Controls whether Hibernate is active (1 = Enabled, 0 = Disabled).
6. `HibernateEnabledDefault`: Controls whether Hibernate is enabled by default (1 = Enabled, 0 = Disabled).
7. Double-click on these values and set them to `1` to enable Hibernate or `0` to disable it.
8. Restart Your PC for Changes to Take Effect.

6. Final Thoughts.

Hibernation is a powerful feature that allows Windows users to save power without losing their work. However, it can take up valuable disk space, so it’s essential to enable or disable it based on your needs.

Now that you know how to control hibernation settings, you can optimize your Windows experience for better performance and power efficiency!

7. Demo Video.

You can watch the following demo video by select the subtitle to your preferred subtitle language.