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#1
Sleep 101 for Dummies?
Some questions about Windows 7 sleep mode. My machine is a desktop and I know a laptop would have different answers.
I have my box set up to go to a screensaver after 45 minutes, black screen after two hours, and sleep after four. This seems to nicely fit my usual pattern of use - generally restarting the machine at bedtime around 11, the antivirus scan runs at 1:30, and I'm not on the machine at all again until 6 or 7 the next night.
So I feel like I'm doing the thing a favor with 12-15 hours a day of no spinning drives, no heat.
But I know there are other schools of thought saying "always on" is a better way to go, and that there's too much stress to the electronics, the drive hardware, etc., when jarred from dormant to engaged.
So better to do what I'm doing, or better to never put a desktop to sleep?
Also, in XP, the screensaver/black screen settings were different when logged in versus not, and the machine would blacken the display a lot faster if I wasn't logged in. In Windows 7 it looks like my current settings leave the bright blue login screen glowing for two hours. I realize I could always turn off the monitor at night, but wondering if there's a way to blacken the screen faster when not logged in.
Lastly for now anyway, I have a printer USB connected to my Windows 7 box, shared wirelessly with the other computers in the house. If they tried to print while my computer is in sleep mode, will the document print or will the printer not be found, and if it prints, would that wake the computer from sleep? I realize I could always just try this for myself and see!