Tips & Tricks: Enable Standby in Windows 2008 R2 Server

Simple as can be…I hope this comes in handy for those who haven’t surfed enough to figure it out yet:

  • Right click on an empty area on your desktop.
  • Select New>Shortcut.
  • In the first box of the Create Shortcut Wizard, type

%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby

  • Click Next
  • Call the shortcut something like “Standby” (without quotes) and click Finish
  • To add the finishing touch, right click on this new icon, select Properties, click the Change Icon button and select an appropriate icon.

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In case you want some other options, here they are:

  • Shutdown: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe –s
  • Reboot: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe –r
  • Logoff: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe –l
  • Standby: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby
  • Hibernate: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Hibernate

Just replace what is underlined in the example with what is underlined above…

Also, if the “Standby” switch doesn’t work for Standby try the “Sleep” switch. It depends on the BIOS config of S3 and in your system configuration of sleep/hybrid sleep/hibernation. Check the power options for more; sometimes hibernation is disabled by default (not available at all as an option), but it is supported.

To Enable/Disable Hibernate open a Elevated Command Prompt.

  • Enable: In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h on and press Enter.
  • Disable: In the elevated command prompt, type powercfg -h off and press Enter.

Enjoy this tip thanks to our good man @Anonymous from www.win2008r2workstation.com!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2011
    Just what i was looking for, thanks!
  • Anonymous
    October 05, 2013
    Thanks! After wading through 17 similar topics with the best answer being 'why would you put a server to sleep', this just works :-).
  • Anonymous
    January 08, 2014
    This is a very convenient method.  Thanks!
  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2014
    It works on ws 2012 as well, thanks!