What's Your Choice -- Standby, Turn Off, or Hibernate?
It's a good question and one that I answered in a recent Hassle-Free PC column. I explained how to plant a Hibernate shortcut on your desktop. (Read the hassle and fix in Three Easy Fixes for Windows Annoyances. The column will also lead you to links that talk about the differences among the various shut down methods.)
Now while I liked the tip, reader Tenbob said he had a better way. He's been using Karen Kenworthy's Showstopper, a freebie that gives you lots of ways to close down your PC.
"As with all of her free offerings," said Tenbob, "this one works flawlessly through a desktop shortcut and is easier than setting one up through the Control Panel."
Tenbob's right on target. Showstopper gives you eight ways to shutdown your PC, including suspend, hibernate, restart, power off, and if you're not concerned about closing apps, force. The tool also has a way for you to schedule events, such as a reboot or shutdown, or launch another program at a specified time. Read some of Showstopper's variations here.
I'm curious -- how do you shut down your PC? Take the poll below.
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wow, 20% of people left it run 24/7. it will be nasty on electric bill
I recently purchased a new desktop computer. It came with XP Pro preinstalled. It also came with a Vista Business CD should I wish to upgrade to Vista. I decided to dual boot into both XP and Vista. So I installed Vista.
After using both XP and Vista, I now exclusively use Vista. I like it more than XP. Over the years that I had XP on a previous computer I was restoring and reinstall XP. I must have reinstalled Windows 25 times. I was continually hacked.
I now feel and am secure using Vista. I have had and have use it for 9 months. I love it. I have been able to install the programs that I used in XP on it iwth no problems. I have setup three printers with no problem. I have had no problems with Vista.
I can not understand the negative writeups it gets. As I said I love it. Between XP and Vista. I would rather have Vista.
I started out with DOS 2.0 and went on from there. I remember when Windows came out the first time and how exciting it was to use it. I've had every version since then. Though I have problems from time to tim, who doesn't? On call in shows I hear people even have problems with Apple/Mac, etc. My, my. I was standing next to a man in a computer store who glumly said he was was sticking to his XP Pro. I remember hearing people who were sticking to their older Windows versions when XP came out. Well so far, I like Vista Ultimate a lot; I waited a year or so. At 74, my advice is a quote by Kipling, "Be not the first by whom the new is tried/Nor yet the last to cast the old aside."