Anymore, standby seems to be a solution for a problem which no longer exists. Booting from a completely powered off state to a full desktop takes very little time, on a modern system with an SSD. You’re also less likely to be online to receive updates or the like while in a standby state. Unlike phones, computers rarely have cellular modems. So, the benefits of an “always on” state are largely lost, as the system isn’t going to get updates, notifications or data while it’s in standby. Just power the device off.
Resuming from S3 is still a lot faster than cold booting or resuming from hibernation, even with SSDs and Fast Boot. It’s also nice for keeping your session intact so you don’t have to reopen programs and reload tabs.
Shutting down and re-booting doesn’t retain your active work state. Mac OS will at least launch everything you had open if you want it to, but Windows (at least up to 10) has no such feature.
This is incorrect…ish. Windows, yes even 10, has had a feature for a while now called Automatic Restart Sign-on (ARSO). You can enable this feature by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options > "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in".
After enabling it, a reboot will restore… some apps (hence the ‘ish’), these apps being mostly Microsoft apps (Edge, Word, Outlook, Notepad etc) + some third-party apps (I know Firefox gets restored, not sure about others).
You can also use the shutdown /g command to test this (after enabling ARSO):
/g Fully shuts down and restarts the computer. On restart, if Automatic Restart Sign-Onis enabled, the device automatically signs inand locks based on the last interactive user. After sign in, it restarts any registered applications.
Well that’s handy. I wonder what determines if it can relaunch a program or not. Does it retain your actual work state though, or just relaunch those programs? On my MacBook if I tell it to restore stuff when I shut down then it takes me back to exact same state, sans some VPN logins. Unsaved text editor files will still be there, whatever I had open in vs code will be active, all my browser tabs will restore, etc… It acts more like a hibernate than a shutdown.
Yep it does restore application state as well, but it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss. Notepad is restored surprisingly well - including unsaved text and multiple windows; Firefox and Edge browser tabs are restored; unsaved Word docs are restored as well but oddly enough, Outlook’s state isnt restored (although it does save any unsaved drafs).
I’m guessing some sort of resume/restartable support is needed from the app as well for this to work properly. I imagine modern “UWP” apps would just work, but some additional coding might be needed for traditional win32 apps. Like Adobe Reader for instance, it doesn’t get restored at all.
I honestly find macOS’ feature more annoying than helpful. It doesn’t seem to launch Firefox for me (and probably other stuff), and it doesn’t recreate all the state in my terminal. And then my first login is completely frozen for a couple minutes as it loads all that stuff on first boot, most of which I don’t need right away.
So I use sleep a lot and try to avoid shutting down.
It might be quick to get to a windows log in screen, but it still takes a long time to get back to a usable state, not to mention the state that you actually want it in (programs and files open, etc).
Having standby or hibernation was really great for this. Being able to put a laptop into a bag for 24 hours and then getting back to exactly where you left it was a very nice feature.
We don’t really care about background notifications on a PC. on a cellphone when we are out, yes because that’s just how it is and it makes work easier. We just expect as humans that when we put the PC to sleep that it acts as if it’s off but just with a quick resume when we wake it up.
Anymore, standby seems to be a solution for a problem which no longer exists. Booting from a completely powered off state to a full desktop takes very little time, on a modern system with an SSD. You’re also less likely to be online to receive updates or the like while in a standby state. Unlike phones, computers rarely have cellular modems. So, the benefits of an “always on” state are largely lost, as the system isn’t going to get updates, notifications or data while it’s in standby. Just power the device off.
Resuming from S3 is still a lot faster than cold booting or resuming from hibernation, even with SSDs and Fast Boot. It’s also nice for keeping your session intact so you don’t have to reopen programs and reload tabs.
Laptops still exist
Shutting down and re-booting doesn’t retain your active work state. Mac OS will at least launch everything you had open if you want it to, but Windows (at least up to 10) has no such feature.
This is incorrect…ish. Windows, yes even 10, has had a feature for a while now called Automatic Restart Sign-on (ARSO). You can enable this feature by going to
Settings > Accounts > Sign in options > "Automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in".After enabling it, a reboot will restore… some apps (hence the ‘ish’), these apps being mostly Microsoft apps (Edge, Word, Outlook, Notepad etc) + some third-party apps (I know Firefox gets restored, not sure about others).
You can also use the
shutdown /gcommand to test this (after enabling ARSO):/g Fully shuts down and restarts the computer. On restart, if Automatic Restart Sign-On is enabled, the device automatically signs in and locks based on the last interactive user. After sign in, it restarts any registered applications.https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/shutdown
Well that’s handy. I wonder what determines if it can relaunch a program or not. Does it retain your actual work state though, or just relaunch those programs? On my MacBook if I tell it to restore stuff when I shut down then it takes me back to exact same state, sans some VPN logins. Unsaved text editor files will still be there, whatever I had open in vs code will be active, all my browser tabs will restore, etc… It acts more like a hibernate than a shutdown.
Yep it does restore application state as well, but it’s a bit of a hit-and-miss. Notepad is restored surprisingly well - including unsaved text and multiple windows; Firefox and Edge browser tabs are restored; unsaved Word docs are restored as well but oddly enough, Outlook’s state isnt restored (although it does save any unsaved drafs).
I’m guessing some sort of resume/restartable support is needed from the app as well for this to work properly. I imagine modern “UWP” apps would just work, but some additional coding might be needed for traditional win32 apps. Like Adobe Reader for instance, it doesn’t get restored at all.
I honestly find macOS’ feature more annoying than helpful. It doesn’t seem to launch Firefox for me (and probably other stuff), and it doesn’t recreate all the state in my terminal. And then my first login is completely frozen for a couple minutes as it loads all that stuff on first boot, most of which I don’t need right away.
So I use sleep a lot and try to avoid shutting down.
“I don’t have a need to sleep my computer so no one else should!”
It might be quick to get to a windows log in screen, but it still takes a long time to get back to a usable state, not to mention the state that you actually want it in (programs and files open, etc).
Having standby or hibernation was really great for this. Being able to put a laptop into a bag for 24 hours and then getting back to exactly where you left it was a very nice feature.
awweee : ( but i like not having to re-open my 9 separate browser windows, 3 constantly opened apps, plus whatever program i was working in.
Sleep has me back to my workflow in no time
What about session state?
uh… no
We don’t really care about background notifications on a PC. on a cellphone when we are out, yes because that’s just how it is and it makes work easier. We just expect as humans that when we put the PC to sleep that it acts as if it’s off but just with a quick resume when we wake it up.