How to make Windows Vista Start Faster (Almost Instantly)
You can optimize Vista all you want, possibly shaving 15 or 20 seconds off your boot time, or you can approach the problem from a different angle.
All modern PCs support a Standby mode that allows you to shut down Windows quickly, and more importantly, start it back up in only a few seconds. Standby is a power-saving mode (known as the S3 sleep state) that maintains power to your system memory and a few other components, while cutting power to your hard disk, monitor, network adapters, and most of the rest of the devices in your PC.
While it looks like it's turned off, a PC in Standby mode still uses some electricity. If you remove the battery from your laptop or unplug your desktop PC while it's in Standby mode, the power to your system memory will be cut, and you will likely lose data (just as though you unplugged it while it was still on).
The Hibernate mode (the S4 sleep state) solves the power-off problem by storing an image of your RAM on your hard disk and then shutting down completely. This means you can cut power to your desktop PC with a separate power strip or remove the battery from your laptop, and still resume your last Windows session in a fraction of the time it would take to start Windows normally. The downside is that Hibernate takes a little longer to shut down and start up than Standby, and you need a lot more free disk space (at least as much as the amount of RAM in your PC). And then there's the small matter of the Hibernate feature being completely absent from Windows Vista.
There's a drawback to using any of these sleep states exclusively. Namely, Windows gets cranky when it has had too much sleep: performance worsens, some features stop working properly, and applications are more prone to crashes. The remedy is to shut down and restart Windows periodically, at least once or twice a week (more for heavy use), which, of course, somewhat negates the overall time saved by employing sleep features in the first place. Alternatively, you may choose to avoid sleeping your PC altogether; you'll enjoy a more stable environment, but you'll lose the convenience of the "instant on" feature.
The solicitude of Sleep
Instead, Vista provides only a hybrid of Standby and Hibernate (discussed next) which Microsoft calls Sleep mode. Basically, Sleep puts your PC in the S3 power-saving mode just like Standby, but only after saving the stuff in your PC's memory to disk - somewhat like Hibernate - so you won't lose data if you cut power to your PC. So, Sleep is the best of both worlds, right?
Not so fast. First of all, Sleep doesn't work that well with some modern PCs; cut power to your computer, and Windows may lose the saved state from the last session after all, making it no better than Standby. Second, Sleep doesn't completely shut down your computer, which means that it's still using more electricity than it would if it were truly powered off.
If your Windows session doesn't survive a Sleep, you might not have the hybrid sleep feature enabled. Open the Power Options page in Control Panel, click the Change plan settings link under the currently selected plan, and then click the Change advanced power settings link. If necessary, click the Change settings that are currently unavailable link. Expand the Sleep branch, set the Allow hybrid sleep option to On, and click OK.
Conversely, if you'd prefer the quickest possible startup and shutdown, and you're willing to give up the benefits of hibernation, set the Allow hybrid sleep option to Off. This effectively gives Vista a Standby feature; just don't be surprised when Windows can't resume your previous session because your PC lost power while it was asleep.
Hibernate, for real this time
If you're not happy with Vista's Sleep mode, you can instead use the true Hibernate feature that's hidden by default in Windows Vista.
Open a Command Prompt window in administrator mode: open the Start menu, type command in the Search box, right-click the Command Prompt icon that appears, and select Run as administrator. Then, type:
powercfg /hibernate on
at the prompt and press Enter. If the command returns you to the prompt with no message, the change was successful, and you can type exit or close the Command Prompt window. The change takes effect right away (see the "What is hiberfil.sys?" for evidence), but you'll need to close and reopen any Power Options windows (next) to see the new options.
Put your PC to sleep
The key to using Sleep or Hibernate is to set one of them up as the default action to take when your PC would otherwise be shut down.
Now, regardless of your settings, you can choose to sleep your PC- or for that matter, shut down, restart, or log off - at any time by clicking the tiny arrow next to the red button in your Start menu.
But to change your PC's shutdown settings, open the Power Options page in Control Panel, and click the Change plan settings link under the currently selected plan. Next, click the Change advanced power settings link to open the Advanced Settings window, and then expand the Power buttons and lid branch. If necessary, click the Change settings that are currently unavailable link.
Open the Start menu and then click the little arrow to choose how to shut down
Power Options Advanced settings window lets you choose whether your PC goes to sleep or shuts down when you press the power button or close the lid
The options and choices vary depending on your PC's capabilities, but in most cases, you should see at least Power button action, which refers to your PC's main power switch, and Start menu power button, which refers to the red button next to the Search box in your Start menu. You may also see Sleep button action if your keyboard or PC has a formal Sleep button (which looks like a crescent moon), and Lid close action if you're using a laptop.
At most, you'll see four choices under each option: Do nothing, Sleep, Hibernate, and Shut down. The Hibernate option only appears if hibernation is turned on, as described in the previous section. And if you don't see the Sleep option, your BIOS or video driver may not support it.
By default, the red power button in Vista's Start menu is set to Sleep. While this makes for quick startup and shutdown, it also means that your PC will continue to suck electricity even when it's presumably off. And if your PC isn't fully compatible with Vista's Sleep mode, you may lose data if you cut power to your PC. To prevent this situation, set the Start menu power button option to either Shut down or Hibernate.
Next, scroll up just a bit and expand the Sleep branch. Here, you can use the Sleep after and Hibernate after options to have your PC automatically put itself to sleep after a certain period of inactivity. Think of these settings as a more ecologically friendly - but less entertaining alternative to the screen saver.
Time to wake up
While in Standby, Sleep, or Hibernate mode, your PC waits for you to hit the power button - or optionally press a key or move the mouse - at which point it powers up and resumes your previous Windows session.
All sorts of devices can be used to wake your PC when it's asleep, such as your keyboard, some kinds of mice, network adapters, and modems. But first, you need to turn on a setting in Windows. Open Device Manager, and expand the branch containing the device (e.g., Keyboards). Double-click your device, choose the Power Management tab, turn on the Allow this device to wake the computer option, and click OK.
Next, put your PC to sleep and test it out. If you’ve just enabled wake-up for your keyboard, press the Space bar. Or, if you want to wake up the PC with your mouse, give it a nudge.
If that doesn't do it, you'll need to dive into your BIOS setup screen. Look for a Power or APM Configuration category, in which you'll find settings like these:
Power Button Mode.
This option lets you choose whether your power switch shuts down your PC or puts it to sleep. Depending on your BIOS, the setting you choose here may or may not be overridden by the
similar setting in the Windows Control Panel.
Power On By External Modems.
This is also known as "Wake On Ring" (WOR); if you have an internal modem in a PCI or PCIE slot, you can use this feature to call your PC with a telephone to wake it up. (Despite the name, this feature won't work with serial-port or USB modems.)
Power On By PCI/PCIE Devices.
Turn on this option to use the "Wake On LAN" (WOL) feature, which lets you send a wake-up signal to your PC from another PC on your local network. Some motherboards also require that you install a jumper or use a specific type of network card, so check your PC's documentation for details.
Power On By PS/2 Keyboard or Mouse.
Turn this on if you have an old style keyboard or mouse that has a round connector. Most PCs should wake up from newer USB keyboards or mice regardless of this setting. Restore on AC Power Loss. This option lets you decide what happens after you've cut power to your PC. Set this option to Always On.
As you might've expected, some experimentation may be required at this stage.
When you wake up your PC, Vista may require a password before it resumes your previous session. To turn this off, return to the Advanced Settings window, expand the Additional settings branch, and set the Require a password on wakeup to No.
Sleep and Hibernate troubleshooting
For the Standby, Sleep, or Hibernate modes to work properly in Windows Vista, your PC has to cooperate. If it doesn't, you might experience a problem such as:
No sleep.
Windows won’t go to sleep at all; either nothing happens when you try to stand by, or the system just crashes in the middle of the process.
No wake up.
Windows won't wake up after going to sleep, or Windows simply boots normally instead of resuming your previous session.
No more sleep.
Windows goes to sleep or hibernates once, but once it wakes up, it won't go back to sleep until you restart it.
Features are unavailable.
Some or all of the power management features and settings discussed earlier are grayed-out (disabled) or missing.
Stuff stops working.
Some features, like your wireless network, your cordless mouse, or your scanner stop working after waking up, at least until you restart Windows. (Hint: look for new drivers or a firmware update for your device.)
Unfortunately, all of these problems are quite common, mostly because of the inconsistent support for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) in the computer industry. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to help improve your computer's support for APM and ACPI, should you be experiencing any of these problems:
BIOS out of date.
Check with the manufacturer of your computer system or motherboard for a BIOS update. Vista requires that your BIOS comply with the ACPI 2.0 specification.
ACPI/APIC not enabled in BIOS.
Enter your BIOS setup screen and make sure the ACPI APIC support setting is set to On or Enabled. If you see a setting referring to ACPI 2.0 or some later version, try turning it on if it's off, or vice versa. Reboot your PC when you're done. Depending on how ACPI-compliant your PC is, it may take some trial and error to get Vista to sleep properly.
Hybrid sleep not working.
The second most common cause of sleep and hibernation problems, behind an out-of-date BIOS, is a video card (display adapter) driver that doesn't support Vista's Hybrid Sleep feature. Check with the manufacturer of your video card for a newer driver, or try turning off Hybrid Sleep, as described in "The solicitude of Sleep," earlier in this section.
Wireless won't connect after waking up.
As with the video card, make sure you have the latest driver and firmware for your wireless adapter. Also, try changing the device’s power settings: in Device Manager, doubleclick your wireless network adapter. Choose the Power Management tab, and turn off the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power option.
USB devices don't work after waking up.
This is a confirmed bug in Windows Vista, one fixed by Microsoft Hotfix #928631, available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928631.
Out of free disk space.
As explained earlier, the Hibernate feature creates an image file on your hard disk equal in size to the amount of installed memory. If you have 2 GB of RAM, then Windows will need 2,147,483,648
bytes of free disk space for the hiberfil.sys file. If hibernation doesn't work, or if it’s exceedingly slow, try deleting the hibernation file as described in the "What is hiberfil.sys?" howto. Then, defragment your hard disk, and re-enable hibernation.
Trouble recovering from Sleep.
Go to http://www.passmark.com/products/sleeper.htm and download the free PassMark Sleeper tool to help test your computer's ability to enter and recover from Sleep, Standby, and Hibernate modes.
Keep in mind that you may never get your system to reliably go to sleep and wake up, but if you are able to get this feature working, it can be very convenient.
Tags: usb,pci,memory,wifi,wpa,wep,wireless,drivers,hibernate,hard disk
Related Articles