Functions of Stand By button in Windows XP

When shutting off your computer, there are several options, such as Shut Down, Log Off, Standby (or Sleep on later Windows versions), and Hibernate. Understanding these options will help conserve power and preserve your work for when you return to your computer at a later time. Standby refer to power-saving options. When not plugged in to a power source, the laptop will draw power from the battery. To help conserve the power in the battery when you step away, the system can enter one of these power-saving modes. These power-saving modes also take a snapshot of your system so that when you exit the mode, you return to the exact same state that your computer was in before entering the power-saving mode.

System Standby is a power-saving function on Dell computers running Windows XP. Later versions of Windows use a similar function called Sleep. When entering Standby, your laptop shuts off both the monitor and hard drive to preserve power, throttles back other critical systems like the CPU and network connection, and saves your current state and work to RAM. When you exit Standby mode, your computer returns quickly to the state it was in before you went into Standby. The Standby button will become available once the correct video card/adapter drivers are installed. It will appear when you click Start > Turn Off Computer...

Function of “Stand By” button in Windows XP is to offer energy-efficient solution when you want to put your computer to Sleep condition. It will turn-off your monitor, hard-drive, graphic card, and all other internal devices except the memory, motherboard and CPU. Windows will save currently open programs, and when you return from Stand By (sleep) mode, all those programs will be in the same conditions.

When you wake up your computer from Stand By, it will only need 10-15 seconds to return to your Desktop, instead of usual 30-40 seconds when you normally boot Windows.