Open the Start menu and click the triangle arrow button in the lower right corner, then you will see many options (as shown below). Most of these options are straightforward and can be used at a glance, but some options may make many people wonder, such as "standby", "hibernate", and "sleep". What is the difference between these features? Compared with "shutdown" What is the role of each? This is what this article is about.
Before continuing to read, please make an analogy and compare our computer to the study to see what is similar in the operation process.
Suppose there is a bookcase, a desk, and us. There are a lot of books in the bookcase, we all want to see. When reading a book, you must take the book out of the bookcase and spread it out to the desk. For those with a wide range of hobbies, we may need to read a lot of books at the same time, so we will take them all out and put them on the desk.
Desk has been filled at this time, but we also need to find out a few books from the bookcase look. But there is no space on the desk, so we decided to put the books that we didn't look at first and put them back in the bookcase. Then take out the new book from the bookcase and put it on the desk. After half an hour, we may need to put some books that we don't read back into the bookcase, and take other books from the bookcase and put them on the desk.
fact, this process is very similar to computer data handling. Bookcases can be thought of as computer hard drives, desks can be thought of as computer memory, and reading us is the computer's processor. After
you start the computer, if you need to run a new program, Windows will first file from the hard disk into memory, and wait for the processor handling. Of course, there may be many programs running on the computer at the same time, many of which are quietly running in the background, so we are not aware of it. But like the desk, the memory capacity of the computer is also limited. If too many programs are opened at the same time, the memory can't be loaded, but you need to continue to open more programs. How to deal with Windows?
Windows will "scratch" the programs that have not been used for a while to the bookcase (hard disk), then read the files of the new program to be run from the hard disk and save them to the memory (desk).
assume that after a period of use, the computer is running a lot of programs that have reservations in memory, some "temporary storage" in the hard disk. If we don't plan to use a computer at this time, the differences between "shutdown", "sleep", and "sleep" can be reflected.
If "shutdown", then Windows will save the state of all running programs (such as half of the document written in Word), close all programs (can be imagined to close the book directly) And save it to the hard drive, then completely cut off the power of the computer.
If the "sleep", this time Windows will run all the programs of re-save to your hard disk. But the difference with the shutdown is that when shutting down, Windows will "close" the book and put it back in the bookcase; but when sleeping, Windows does not close the book, put it back directly into the bookcase, and empty everything on the desk. Then completely cut off the power of the computer.
If you sleep, this time as will the book back into the bookcase Windows, but the book remains open to this step, and when sleep identical. However, during sleep, the contents of the desk will not be emptied. Windows will cut off the power supply of all devices except memory, but the power supply to the memory will continue, so the data in the memory will not be lost.
That is to say, if you want to shut down the computer, Windows must first close all running programs, then turn off the system background service, and then send a special signal to the motherboard and power supply, so that the power is cut off for all devices. The power supply, the computer is completely shut down. After the next boot, the computer completes the self-test, then loads the Windows system into memory, then continues to load other background services and displays the login interface. After logging in, you can run your own program and start using your computer. The entire process takes the most time because it has to be completely shut down and the system and programs started up again.
For standby mode, if you want to put the computer into standby mode, Windows will automatically send another special signal to the power supply. Then the power will cut off the power supply of other devices except the memory, and the system still keeps the system running. All the data in it, this process can be completed in a second or two. When entering the normal state from the standby state, as long as the power is turned on, then Windows will continue to run from the last "status data" saved in the memory, this process only takes a few seconds.
It can be seen that for the standby state, you don't have to close your own program. If you want, you can stand by at any time. To restore, you only need to press the power button to recover in a few seconds. But this mode is convenient, but it has a fatal flaw: you can't stop powering the memory. Because memory is a volatile storage device, the data must be maintained while maintaining power. Therefore, once the computer is powered off in standby mode, even in less than a second, the data in the memory will be lost. At the next boot, Windows will restart as if it were started from the shutdown state.
Sleep mode is similar to standby mode, except that in hibernation, Windows saves the data in memory to a file in the root directory of the system disk on the hard disk (you can understand this file as a memory state). "Mirror"). The next time you turn it on, it reads data from the hibernation file on the memory and loads it into physical memory. Hibernate mode can achieve similar functions as standby mode, except that the recovery speed is slightly slower, and it needs to occupy a space on the hard disk as much as physical memory to save the hibernation file. The more physical memory, the more space is used, and the longer it takes to enter and recover from the state (after all, the files need to be read from the hard disk into the memory, and the speed of the hard disk is always the slowest). But the advantages of this mode are also many, not afraid of power failure! After all, the data on the hard disk will not be lost after power off.
WindowsVista added in the beginning of a sleep mode is a combination of standby and sleep mode all the advantages. After entering sleep mode, Windows will first save the data in the memory to the hard disk (this is similar to hibernation), and cut off the power supply of other devices besides the memory (this is similar to standby). During recovery, if there is no power failure, the system will recover directly from the memory. The computer software and hardware application network (http://www.45it.com) tells everyone that it only takes a few seconds; even if it is powered off Because the hard disk also has a state image of the memory, it can also be recovered from the hard disk, although the speed is slightly slower, but at least do not worry about data loss.
Collapse this table to expand the table
Enter the speed recovery speed, power consumption, power failure,
sleep for a few seconds, the power needs to be a few seconds After a small amount of power is turned off, the unsaved data is not damaged, but the recovery speed needs to be slightly extended.
Sleep for two minutes or so for two minutes or so, no power consumption, no data saved, no loss
stand for a few seconds a few seconds a small amount of memory is required during all unsaved data will be lost when power is off
In summary, these types of models have advantages and disadvantages, but as long as used by Windows and hardware support, It is strongly recommended to use the sleep function instead of the usual shutdown operation. After all, the advantages of the sleep function are obvious, not only can avoid the long startup process, but also can be regarded as a general electrical appliance like a TV, with the opening and closing, no need to worry about losing data.
By design, we can trigger different results in different ways. For example, if there is a "power" button on the keyboard, we can set Windows to enter a certain mode after pressing the button; if it is a laptop, you can choose to close the cover, Windows enters a certain mode; After pressing the power button on the chassis, Windows enters another mode.
If you want to set these different operations in detail, you can open the control panel, enter "power" in the search box in the upper right corner of the window, and then click the "change power button behavior" link in the search results (as shown below) Shown).
then can see the interface shown below. If your computer is a laptop with a battery, you can set it separately for both the battery and the AC; however, if your computer is a desktop without a battery, you can only use AC. Make settings.
In the above figure, the "power" button refers to the power switch on most devices, for example, for desktop computers, usually represents a larger, or more conspicuous button on the chassis; for laptops , it may be the key to the corresponding text or icon. The "Sleep" button is not available on every computer. For desktops, this button is usually on the keyboard and is labeled "Sleep". The "cover" is obviously the screen of the laptop.
By setting according to your actual situation, you can directly switch the computer to different states according to different purposes when needed. Compared with the original shutdown operation, this method is not only fast, but also can be restored to use as soon as possible.