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HeatherYFlag for United States of America

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Group Policy & Hibernate

I was wondering if there was a way to disable the hibernation feature on my xp pro clients using group policy. I've searched everywhere and have not found a solution. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you in advance!

HeatherY
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mglukhovsky

I'm not sure there is a group policy (I'll keep looking) but on the local machine you can do the following:

(pulled from http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prnb_efs_qyxz.asp)
Disabling Hibernation Mode

When a computer hibernates, the contents of system memory and any open files are written to a storage file on the hard drive, and the system is powered off. This saves energy and allows the computer to be restarted with the same applications and files that were open when the system hibernated. However, hibernation can be a security risk because files are decrypted for use in applications. If an encrypted file is opened and then the system is hibernated, the contents of the open encrypted file will be in the hibernation storage file as plaintext. An attacker could potentially access the storage file used during hibernation. For this reason, EFS users might want to disable hibernation so that encrypted files are not placed at risk. If you choose to use hibernation mode, be sure to close any open encrypted files before letting the system hibernate.

To disable hibernation

   1. In Control Panel, double-click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Power Options.
   2. On the Hibernate tab, clear the Enable hibernate check box.
   3. Click Apply.

I'll keep trying to find a group policy but I highly doubt it exists. Editing it on the local machine may be the only way to go.
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mglukhovsky

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ckumar42

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Nice find, ckumar42. It all comes down to what HeatherY would prefer.
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ASKER

Thank you both for your input!!! They are both great solutions, I'm leaning towards the utility because I have 200 clients and I'd like to manage everything from one central location. I have scripts in place from a previous Net Admin that I haven't fully figured out their purpose so I don't want to mess with them just yet. Have a great night!!!

Many Thanks,

HeatherY
the user will not able to enable hibernate again if :


after you disable the hibernate function on user computer , do this :

1: run gpedit.mac
2: expand user configuration
3: expand administrative templates
4: expand control panel
5: on the right pane, double click on Hide specified controlpanel applets
6: select enable
7: click show
8: click add
9: type powercfg.cpl

click close.


oh, looks like ck got a better suggestions,  ignore my above post then :-)
Could use Group Policy to centralise admin power settings.
chillinlong: You can't administer power settings using the Group Policy Editor. The registry key controlling hibernation isn't accessible remotely.
im sorry. How about setting up a registry change key and then putting it thorugh Group Policy.
Hey,

i got  asolution for this without any 3rd party apps.
I wanted to apply a hibernation policy so people that did leave their computers on at night then their pcs would hibernate and save power.
but can be used to disable hibernation too

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/915160
do from 15 down, give users access to change the appropriate parts of the registry.

this will allow users to modify the powercfg settings
then you can add the following to a logon script

echo This
POWERCFG /HIBERNATE on             (off will disable hibernation)


powercfg /change "home/office desk"  /hibernate-timeout-dc 30
powercfg /change "home/office desk"  /hibernate-timeout-ac 25
powercfg /change "home/office desk" /monitor-timeout-dc  2
powercfg /change "home/office desk" /disk-timeout-ac 10
powercfg /change "home/office desk" /disk-timeout-dc 10
powercfg /change "home/office desk" /standby-timeout-ac 20
powercfg /change "home/office desk" /standby-timeout-dc 20

powercfg /setactive "home/office desk"

/setactive sets the "home/office desk" scheme to be the active power scheme

hope this helps took me a lot of searching and playing around to figure that out and i was dead chuffed with myself.

cheers


Colm


Energy Star's link to the utility that ckumar42 cites seems to have changed. The current link is http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=power_mgt.pr_power_mgt_ez_gpo