Windows Vista Can Lose Features When You're Not Looking

Imagine this scenario: you are busy working on your brand new Windows Vista powered laptop and just when you turn around for a minute, the operating system is short of a few features. Well, this is a tad exaggerated, to be honest. However, it does not mean that indeed you cannot find features missing from Windows Vista.

Microsoft has even issued a Knowledge Base article addressing an issue associated with the use of the Disk Cleanup Tool. According to Microsoft, the hybrid sleep and hibernation features can become unavailable following the use of the Disk Cleanup Tool. "After you use the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows Vista, you may experience the following symptoms: you cannot see the Hibernate option in Power Options, when you use the sleep feature, the computer does not recover its settings if power is lost," informs the KB article.

This issue is a direct result of the way the Disk Cleanup Tool manages the hibernation file. In order to perform its actions, the Disk Cleanup Tool has to turn off the hibernation file. Without the enabled hibernation file, Windows Vista can no longer access the hybrid sleep and the hibernation features.

"When the hibernation file is disabled, and the hybrid sleep feature is enabled, a backup of open programs and open files will not be saved to the disk when you use the sleep feature in Windows Vista. Additionally, if the computer loses power while the Windows is in sleep mode, open programs and open files will not be recovered, and any unsaved work will be lost," also reads the KB article.

The solution for this predicament is rather simple. All you have to do is type the "powercfg -h on" command in a command prompt. The command will enable both the hibernate and the hybrid sleep features. "powercfg -h on" has to be run with administrative privileges.