I've lost 'Hibernate' in Windows

Q I have a laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic edition. Following a recent spate of downloads from Windows Update, the Hibernate option has disappeared from my Start menu. Where did it go and how do I get it back?
Richard Stone

A Windows displays the Hibernate option only on PCs it deems able to support the feature. It is possible that the laptop’s manufacturer enabled the Hibernate feature in error or otherwise later found it to be unreliable – and duly informed Microsoft about the issue.

As such, the disabling of this feature from your laptop could have been a routine inclusion in any one of the hundreds of Windows Update fixes Microsoft issues each year. However, this is just a theory – we can’t be sure.

You wish to have the feature reinstated so we assume that you have previously used Hibernate without problem, though you did not explicitly say this. The first thing to do, then, is to check whether your computer is able to support Hibernate.

To do this, click Start, type cmd into the Search box and, when cmd.exe is highlighted above, press Enter. If you are prompted for an administrator password, type it in and press Enter or click Continue. The Command window will open. At the command prompt, type powercfg /a and press Enter.

This will return a list of ‘sleep states’ available to your PC. If Hibernate is listed as being available (and we predict it will be) then it can be re-enabled by typing powercfg /hibernate on and pressing Enter. Once you have done this, restart Windows and the option should reappear.

Incidentally, you will find more options related to Hibernate (and Sleep and Standby modes) in the Hardware and Sound section of Control Panel (from the Start menu). Just click the Change plan settings link followed by the Change advanced power settings link to explore.