by Dragos, on November 7th, 2008  
I thought of sharing a very useful tip with you about how to significantly decrease the time Windows XP is turned off or on. I always use this trick and i found very useful when working on some kind of project, because it saves you all the items, applications you are currently working for the next time you log into XP. This is the HIBERNATE feature.

To use it you should first of all enable it if it is not enabled. To check if this feature is already available go to Start>Turn Off Computer and press Shift key on your keyboard. You should notice how the "Stand By" button changes to "Hibernate" . If it doesn't it means the feature has not been enabled yet.

If "Hibernate" is not enabled to you follow the following steps, else skip this paragraph.
Go to Start>Control Panel>Power Options>Hibernate(in the upper tabs)>Check "Enable hibernation">Apply the changes. Note: to use the hibernation feature you need to have some free space on your hard disk, depending on your RAM capacity. If you have 1GB of RAM you should have a little bit more than 1 GB of free space on your hard disk and so on, because when you put your computer into hibernation, this will actually store all the information from you RAM onto the hard disk, so when you next time boot your computer this image will be loaded into the RAM again.

Next, i will show you how you can quickly put you computer into hibernation with a simple combination of keys. So will need to create a shortcut on your desktop:

  1. Right click on your desktop>Select New>Shortcut

  2. In the input field copy and paste the following, without the quotes "%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState"

  3. Click next

  4. Give this shortcut a name. I named it "Suspend"

  5. Right click the shortcut and put the mouse cursor into the "Shortcut key" field.

  6. Now think of a combination of keys you will use to suspend your operating system. Just do not think about something like CTRL+Z or Win Key+D as these shortcuts are already used for other purposes. Instead think about something like ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+something else. I came up with the following combination ALT+CTRL+SHIFT+-(from the numpad) . I can put my windows into hibernation with my eyes closed, lol.

  7. Apply your changes.

  8. Now we need to choose a proper icon for this shortcut. To do that click "Change Icon">Browse and select your preferred icon. I have attached the icon i am currently using.

  9. Forget about the shortcut on your desktop (you could even put it somewhere far far away into your documents) but do remember the combination of keys you have chosen to suspend your OS.

  10. Now execute your combination of keys and we'll see you next time you log into windows again :)


With this feature you will not only save a lot of time "shutting down" your computer or starting it, but you will also save a lot of time from opening all the applications and all the documents you were currently working with, this is what i call ergonomics.

Here's the icon for the shortcut Door Suspend (right click and save it or click me)