The hibernation mode in Vista is more capable than XP’s as it forces applications to switch off. Until now a program could impose itself on the OS and keep consuming power.

When XP goes into standby or hibernation mode, the programs weren’t told and processes often couldn’t be stopped. For example, if XP goes into standby while a CD is being burned, the application burning the disc can stop the standby process.

Under Vista, programs receive messages which indicate that the system is going into standby but without telling them which mode (simple or prolonged) and therefore applications can no longer block the process by protesting that they have not finished their tasks. They are forced to save everything in the memory regardless.

Vista in hibernate

Keeping the data in the central memory requires a constant power supply. This solution is mostly used for desktops as it is quite costly (energy-wise).

In this area, Vista has a big advantage. If ever a laptop goes into standby and its battery no longer has enough power to supply its memory, the operating system wakes up the applications in order to save their data to the hard drive. It therefore goes from standby stright into full hibernate mode. On XP, the system went to standby into shutdown without saving data first.

Know that there is a hybrid mode in Vista which is mainly aimed at desktops; this mode saves the application data in its memory but the system files are saved to the hard drive. Thus (in case of a power cut), the system can be booted faster. On the other hand, certain data such as unsaved files will likely be lost. Microsoft is pushing people to use standby or hibernate now more than ever. People often leave their computer switched on while they are not using it, using up their battery for no reason. This is why Redmond praises the operating system’s power-efficient modes. Although we ask ourselves why Microsoft chose for the OS to automatically go into standby rather than directly into hibernation for laptops. To understand this, we tested the impact of the standby mode on the battery.