A great energy saving feature of Windows XP is hibernation. In a nutshell, when you hibernate your computer, it writes all the contents of your physical memory to the hard drive and then shuts down the computer. Then when you turn your computer back on, your memory fills with what was written to the hard drive so all your open programs, etc. are restored to the exact point that you hibernated the machine.

Basically it is like “pausing” your computer, shutting it down to save power and then when you turn it back on your computer is “unpaused”.

To enable hibernation:

1. Go to the Control Panel > Power Options.
2. On the Hibernate tab, select Enable hibernation.
3. Apply your changes.

To hibernate your computer:

1. Go to Start > Shutdown.
2. When the “What do you want to do?” dialog pops up, hold down the Shift key. You will see the option for Stand By becomes Hibernate.
3. Click on Hibernate.