Hibernation option is gone in settings/start menu

M

MatthiasE5

Hunter
Hello,

I have updated Parallels (Pro) from 19 to 20, and Windows 11 ARM from 23H2 to 24H2.
I noticed the hibernate button is no longer available in the Start Menu shutdown options.
I need this for various reasons.
It is not possible to re-enable it in Windows 11 Configuration (in normal Windows Settings (not VM/Parallels, there is a checkbox that is grayed out for enabling hibernation. There is also an option that removes the graying out so users can see the hibernate option in their start menu. The option to remove the the graying out does exist in the VM, but the checkbox for hibernate is not available, only "standby" and "lock".
I am very sure that there is no reason to make this available again. I have reason to believe this was blocked by Parallels as it seems to be still available in normal Windows 11 24H2 installations.
I am of course aware that there are commands in windows to enable/initiate hibernation beyond having to use the Start Menu.
powercfg /h on
shutdown /h
e.g. in a bat file run as administrator.

However I am not certain if perhaps there was a stability problem with hibernation or some other reason why Parallels chose to disable it. Was this change documented in the changelog?

Please help.

Thank you.
 
Hello, so I did some tests. Apparently, after installing 24H2 (under Parallels 20), the hibernation option will disappear, but it can be re-enabled.
After clicking "hibernate" in the the start menu, it sometimes very briefly shows "preparing hibernation", and then pauses the VM. It seems to me that in 23H2, this message was longer, or at least it felt as if is actually putting windows to hibernation. But perhaps nothing actually changed between 23H2/P19 and 24H2/P20.
There is a hiberfil.sys that is shown as 2 GB in C. I wonder if it even makes sense to have hibernation enabled or if it may even waste space?
I translated the following event view log from German to English.

System

Provider
[Name] Microsoft-Windows-Power-Troubleshooter
[Guid] {cdc05e28-c449-49c6-b9d2-88cf761644df}

EventID 1

Version 3

Level 4

Task 0

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000000000000000

TimeCreated

[SystemTime] 2025-02-05T14:21:34.4994669Z

EventRecordID 564

Correlation

[ActivityID] {b10c21cd-2728-450a-87be-3ce497c1d2d8}

Execution

[ProcessID] 3340

[ThreadID] 2948

Channel System

Computer ...

Security

[UserID] S-1-5-19

EventData

SleepTime 2025-02-05T14:21:23.4445692Z
WakeTime 2025-02-05T14:21:34.2109714Z
SleepDuration 386
WakeDuration 218
DriverInitDuration 200
BiosInitDuration 0
HiberWriteDuration 1549
HiberReadDuration 1362
HiberPagesWritten 198109
Attributes 1979728129
TargetState 5
EffectiveState 5
WakeSourceType 0
WakeSourceTextLength 0
WakeSourceText
WakeTimerOwnerLength 0
WakeTimerContextLength 0
NoMultiStageResumeReason 0
WakeTimerOwner
WakeTimerContext
CheckpointDuration 1162

The system was reactivated from a standby mode.

Time in power-saving mode: ‎2025‎-‎02‎-‎05T14:21:23.444569200Z
Reactivation time: ‎2025‎-‎02‎-‎05T14:21:34.210971400Z
Reactivation source: Unknown
GERMAN for reference due to translation insecurities. Note that I did NOT click "save energy", but i did click "Ruhezustand" (hibernation).
Das System wurde aus einem ###Standbymodus reaktiviert.
Zeit im ###Energiesparmodus: ‎2025‎-‎02‎-‎05T14:21:23.444569200Z

So my questions are:
1. Can Parallels perform a real virtual hibernation action (virtual RAM to disk) that windows perceives as if it did this on real hardware, (and that allows e.g. testing of software how it behaves in that case?)
2. Does Parallels actually perform such an action, or does it stop Windows during the hibernation process and pauses the VM instead?
3. From a security/safety perspective, would a VM that has first been put into Windows hibernation and THEN paused be more robust as a file (as a VM file), i.e. in case of corrupttion, do you think a paused VM might be less relieable than a paused VM that was virtually hibernated before the pausation, e.g. when such a VM file is restored from a APFS snapshot as created by time machine or Carbon Copy Cloner?
 
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