Put Windows Into Sleep or Hibernate Mode Using Command-line

If you frequently use the Sleep or Hibernate feature in Windows, you can create and pin a shortcut to the Taskbar to put your computer to sleep or hibernate mode in a single click, without having to open the Start menu. Here is how to do that.

Put Windows to Sleep

Using NirCmd

NirCmd is multi-purpose tool from Nirsoft, that can be used to automate many complicated system management tasks using shortcut or command-line. To put your computer to sleep mode, create a shortcut with the following target:

nircmd standby

Using PsShutdown

PsShutdown is part of the PsTools suite from Microsoft Windows SysInternals which every sysadmin would have in their toolkit. Here is the command-line to place the system into sleep mode.

psshutdown -d

When you use this tool for the first time, you’ll see a EULA screen which you need to accept to proceed.

Using Wizmo

Using Wizmo, here is the command-line:



wizmo standby

Put Windows to Hibernate

Here are the options to put the system into hibernate mode. First, using the built-in solution shutdown.exe.

shutdown.exe /h
nircmd hibernate
wizmo hibernate
psshutdown -h

Turn off the monitor

To turn off the monitor without putting the system to sleep, here are the options.

wizmo monoff
nircmd monitor off

RELATED: How to Turn Off Monitor Using Shortcut or Command-line in Windows


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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