This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable hibernate and restore or delete the hiberfil.sys file in Windows 11.
Hibernate is a power-saving state designed primarily for laptops, and might not be available for all PCs. (For example, PCs with Modern Standby may not have hibernate available.) 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, the hiberfil.sys file will be deleted to free up hard drive space.
- If you disable hibernate, hibernate will no longer show in the Power menu.
If you want to use hibernate, then be sure to specify the hiberfile type as full.
Reference:
How to disable and re-enable hibernation - Windows Client
Explains how to turn off the hibernation feature in Windows.
learn.microsoft.com
You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable hibernate.
A Windows device that supports Modern Standby may not have hibernate available by default.
If your system supports Modern Standby and you do not have hibernate available and want hibernate, you will need to either disable Modern Standby Network Connectivity or disable Modern Standby first, then enable hibernate.
Contents
- Option One: Enable or Disable Hibernate using Command
- Option Two: Enable or Disable Hibernate using REG File
1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.
2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)
(Enable hibernate - default)
powercfg -h onOR
(Disable hibernate)
powercfg -h off3 You can now close Windows Terminal (Admin) if you like.
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.
2 Enable Hibernate
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_Hibernate.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power]
"HibernateEnabled"=dword:00000001
"HibernateEnabledDefault"=dword:000000013 Disable Hibernate
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_Hibernate.reg
Download
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power]
"HibernateEnabled"=dword:00000000
"HibernateEnabledDefault"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 If you have Smart App Control turned on, you will need to unblock the downloaded REG file.
6 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
7 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
8 Restart the computer to apply.
9 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
10 If you disabled hibernate, run the command below in an elevated command prompt to delete the hiberfil.sys file if wanted. (see screenshot below).
del /f /s /q /a "C:\hiberfil.sys"That's it,
Shawn Brink
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