Power Management

I'm running Windows XP Home. I know how to get to my POWER OPTIONS PROPERTIES WINDOW. I know how to adjust my Monitor settings to shut my monitor down, however how do I get my computer to Sleep? What is the difference between SYSTEM STANDBY and SYSTEM HIBERNATES options? Which function should I use if I want my computer to basically shut down if I'm not using it after a certain peroid time? Also under Power Schemes options I have it set for "always on". Where should be set? Thanks

To get your computer to sleep go to the advanced tab on the power options. There you can set different reactions for your actions like sleep when I push the power button. My understanding of standby is that during stand by the computer essentially shuts down with the exception of the memory. This way the data for the current system state are still stored there allowing quicker restart while the battery, if it is a laptop, lasts or the power is plugged in. Hibernation is similar except the data from the memory is stored in a temporary file on the hard drive and the computer shuts down completely. When it restarts it reloads the data from the drive to the memory and restarts much the same as sleep mode from there. Problems with both of these modes is that changes to things such as the last good configuration, registry or profile are not completely saved which can cause certain issues if these are used all of the time. As far as the settings for your power scheme the right one is the one that makes the computer do what you want it to do. Other than that it doesn't matter. For myself unless it is a laptop I have it set to always on and turn all of the items underneath to never so I don't have to wait for anything.

Make sure your computer has some extra RAM.

If it's desktop, forget power saving features.
No need to use them and they often cause issues.