How to Enable Missing Hibernate Option in Windows 8 Power Menu?
The hibernation feature has been a part of Microsoft Windows since XP. It saves all the open applications and documents to the hard disk and turns off the PC. Compared to a true complete shutdown of the system, this saves almost as much battery but allows for resuming your work in a much quicker fashion that a fresh boot up.
The related sleep feature saves everything to memory instead of the hard drive before powering down. This saves almost as much power as hibernation and allows for an even quicker resume; however, as the information is only saved to memory, a power failure will result in lost data.
In all Windows 8 computer systems that I have installed recently, I noticed one common issue! The "Hibernate" option is not available in power menu. We know that Microsoft has removed Start Menu from Windows 8 and now you need to access the power options from new Charms Bar.
But the new power menu doesn't show hibernate option. It contains sleep, restart and shut down options only as shown in following screenshot:
In fact if you try to access the classic shut down dialog box by pressing "Alt+F4" keys together, it'll also not show hibernate option in the drop-down list of power options.
The reason behind this move might be the new hybrid shutdown feature. Microsoft has introduced new hybrid shutdown feature in Windows 8 which is actually a combination of hibernate and shut down and makes Windows 8 shut down process faster. It might be a possible reason behind removing hibernate option from Windows 8 power menu.
But hibernate option can be added back to power menu. If you want to get the missing hibernate option back in Windows 8, just follow these simple steps:
The assumption is that Microsoft Windows 8 will be smart enough to determine what wil be the best for you. However, if you are here, you are looking for additional control options. By following these steps, you can add hibernation as option even if it does not appear in the Power menu.
1. First of all press Win key + W and search for Power Options.
2. Here select the first result on the list which is Power Options.
3. Selecting this will take you to the Power option in classic control. Here select choose what the Power buttons do option located on the left panel.
4. Here, Select the Change settings that are currently unavailable option which is located at the top.
5. Selecting this option will enable some options which were unavailable earlier. Move to the Shutdown settings area. Hibernate Show in Power menu can be selected.
6. It should be unchecked by default. To enable the option, you just need to select the check box provided in front of that option.
Now Hibernation will be added to Power menu under the Settings charm.
