How to Hibernate Just Current Session in Windows

Question

If we hibernate a PC, it writes everything to hard disk for all users. However I need it only for one user. In other words other users should be able to use the PC. When we lock the current session or switch to other user, first user will continue to use RAM & internet in the background. In this case second user has a slow PC, because first user has a lot of big programs. Also first user does not want to close & reopen programs for each logging in.

Shutting down the PC effects all users but logging off effects just current user. So if we say shutting down is global, logging off is local version of it. Similarly hibernating effects all users but what is its local version? Shortly how can I hibernate just current user in Windows but others?

PS. I think solution requires to write a program or script but stackoverflow marked this question as off topic then removed the question.

Answer 1

There's no such feature in Windows. You can only hibernate the whole system.

When switching users, the background sessions (applications) are run with lower priority. However those applications still use the system resources.

Depending on the nature of the application and its features, the background applications can be swapped out to free memory. For example, Notepad with an opened text file could be swapped out almost completely to the paging file thus making room for active user applications. On the other hand, an archiver or media encoder application would still use more system resources as it processes data.

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Windows 8 implements something similar to hibernation with regards to the modern (Metro) UI applications. When you do not use an application for an extended time, it gets stopped completely and frees almost all resources it used. And when you return to the application, it gets re-started, therefore it takes more time.

Modern UI applications are stopped this way when you switch user sessions.

Answer 2

You could achieve what you want with a VM.

Lets say you have a work account and a personal one.

Launch another copy of windows in VMware player for work and tell it to automatically suspend when closing (incase of a restart shutdown). When it suspends it effectively "Hibernates" and frees up ALL the resources you were using.

Pros of using a VM

It will pretty much run as fast as native windows if let it have access to 80% of your resources.

Then when you finish work just close VMware and let it suspend to disk and free up 100% of what your work session used.

When its time to work again, run the VM and it will return exactly as you left it with all your applications open.

If say its a family using the one computer you can set the host machine up with a barebones user account that does nothing but present the option to pick a VM.

User picks their VM that is locked with their own password. Their entire environment is contained and nothing they do can affect anyone else or stop the computer working properly.

You can only run a single VM at a time (with the free version) but this may actually work in your favor. For someone else to login they have to suspend whoever left their VM open before opening their own, thereby ensuring everyone has access to the majority of the resources available on the computer when they do stuff.

Cant share applications. This is listed as a CON but is a pro as well since, no-one is going to break your favorite app but updating it system wide.

Cons of VMs and some work arounds

Time consuming to setup initially. Have to install windows and applications for every user. You could however setup one VM, then clone it for the others and just rename the user account and change the password.

Wasted resources with the overhead of running a VM. The HOST OS will probably be idling with 4gB of ram used that your VM just cant have. You can trim that down to 2GB or even lower by turning off background processes and service.

Uses a LOT of disk space. Each VM will probably need 50GB and potentially a lot more each VM wants to install big applications and games. You could just put ALL users on the same VM if you only care about yourself. 🤣 Make them share resources and have the ability to get it all back just when you want it.

No public user folders. You can share files between users tho, every VM can be setup to mount the HOST computers public user folder.

Cant share applications. Everyone will have to have their own copy installed using more disk space. Sharing a steam games library will work to dramatically cut down on disk usage but most normally applications wont play nice with shared workspace.

Alternatives to VMWare that have other advantages

If Graphics performance for the VM users is not important, then using VirtualBox will also give you the ability to restore a VM other points in time if your children break something and you just cant be bothered fixing it. This one would also let you run multiple VM's at once. (FYI Paid versions of VMware will probably give you the same features).

Windows Hyper-V is a build in VMware solution in windows that would also let you run many VM's at the same time. It also has dynamic resource allocation AFAIK so your VMs can chare with the host instead of straight up claiming X amount of ram. It can take more when needed and give it back later. AFAIK (I have not tried this).

Alternative to VM's entirely.

Buy more ram 😅.

RAM usually the biggest bottle neck when leaving user accounts running. The ram gets full and it needs to start using the system disk a lot as a substitute making everything slow to a crawl.

Upgrade to 32GB or even 64 and you can probably just leave everything open without any issues.

It costs money but will save you all that time wasted on VMs and opens up the computers capabilities even further.

FYI: I have 32gb and I can leave 5 game launchers running, a plex server, a ton of docker containers and a LOT of browser tabs open in up to three browser, and still often have few GB of ram left over. This is enough to let a AAA game title open up, or even play with Virtual machines. They may require more than what's left available but that little bit of flex allows time for the resources to reallocate accordingly.