How To Enable Hibernate in Windows 11 (Ultimate Guide)

Get to know how to enable and disable hibernation in Windows 11. This is an alternative low-power mode to sleep so that you can save more battery percentage and energy.

Hibernate, Sleep, and Hybrid Mode in Windows 11 – What are they?

Both are lower-power modes that can save your system battery when not in use, but the hibernate option turns off more system functions to preserve more energy.

In both modes, the monitor is deactivated, spin the hard drive down, and turn you to where you left it off when you wake it up. It is suggested that you not use hibernation as often as sleep for some reasons; the main one is that it takes your systems a lot of time to return.

Use it only when you wish to save battery while keeping your system active and knowing you will be away.

Hybrid sleep in a combination of both of these for the desktop computers, it can put docs apps on your hard disk and your system into a lower power mode, which allows you to wake your system and resume work quite quickly. By default, it is enabled in Windows on desktop PC and disabled on laptops. When enabled, it automatically puts the system into this mode when you put it in sleep mode.

How To Turn Hibernate On or Off in Windows 11

Turn On Hibernate

Access hibernation via Windows 11’s power and sleep settings. You can find these in the following way:

  1. Open “start menu”.
  2. Select “settings”.
  3. Select “system”.
  4. After this click on “power and sleep” from the left pane.
  5. Once done, select “additional power settings” present on the right side.
  6. You can either click “Choose what the power button did” or “choose what closing the lid does”.

Keep in mind that both options shall navigate you to the same screen

  1. The next window shall carry 4 items that can be adjusted; along with the setting prompt, select different options based on whether the system is running on battery or plugged in.
  2. If you wish to turn on hibernate, choose it from one of the four menus.
  3. Click on “save changes” present at the bottom of the screen. Now, put the system down into hibernation by performing the action you select.

Enable Hibernation

ALSO SEE: Fix: Windows 11 Widgets Showing as Blank.

Add the Hibernate Option in the Power Menu

There is another way to add it to the power menu: shutdown and restart options.

  1. Open “start menu”.
  2. Go to “settings”.
  3. Click on “system”.
  4. Choose “power and sleep”.
  5. Once done, go to “additional power settings”.
  6. Select “Choose what the power button does” or “Choose what closing lid does”. Again, both options shall take you to the same window.
  7. After this, you need to click “change currently unavailable settings”.
  8. Now you shall see additional choices there under the “shutdown settings”.
  9. Click on the box present next to “hibernate”.
  10. Hit “save changes”.

Add Hibernation to power menu

After this, when you open start and hit the power button you shall see an additional “hibernate” option with others.

Disable and Re-enable Hibernation Quickly

This one applies to the following:

Windows Server 2019, Windows 11 - all editions, Windows Server 2016, Windows 7 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

Remember that you might lose your data if you make hibernation unavailable and power loss occurs while the hybrid sleep setting is switched to “turn on”. The hybrid sleep does not work if your hibernation is unavailable.

ALSO SEE: What Data Does Windows 11 Store About You.

Making Hibernation Unavailable

Hibernation Unavailable

  1. Open “start menu” by pressing the Windows button from the keyboard.
  2. Once done, you need to search for “cmd”.
  3. Right-click on “command prompt”.
  4. After this, you need to select “run as administrator”.
  5. Once the user account control prompts you, you need to click on “Continue”.
  6. In cmd, type in “powercfg.exe /hibernate off”.
  7. Hit “enter”.
  8. Type in “exit” and hit “enter” to close it.

ALSO SEE: How To Use Media Creation Tool To Make Windows 11 Bootable USB.

Make Hibernation Available

Make Hibernation Available

  1. Open “start menu”.
  2. Search for “cmd” and right-click on “command prompt”.
  3. Once done, click on “run as administrator”.
  4. Once prompted, select “Continue”.
  5. In cmd type in “powercfg.exe /hibernate on”.
  6. Hit “enter”.
  7. Type “exit” and hit “enter”.

You can find the Hiberfil.sys in the drive’s root folder where the OS is installed. This file is reserved by the Windows Kernel Power Manager when windows are installed. Its size depends on how much RAM is installed on your system.

The system uses this file to store a copy of system memory on the hard disk when the hybrid sleeping setting is turned “ON”. The system shall not hibernate if this file is not present.

This is how you can enable or disable hibernation in Windows 11. We have also shown you various methods to add it to the power menu. You can also make it “available” or “unavailable” as and when required.

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Lee White
Lee is currently a full-time writer at DekiSoft that is eager to discover new and exciting advancements in Technology, Software, Linux and Cyber Security. Lee has spent the past 18 years working as an Systems Engineer providing support for various operating systems and networks. When not at his desk or writing, you will find him tinkering with retro tech.

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