VM is a must-have for most users nowadays, but unfortunately Windows is not quite VM-ready. If you are experiencing an error message suggesting VM has started on its own, this is for you.

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Navigate to Power Options.
3. Uncheck “Turn on fast startup”.

The terminology Microsoft decided use is quite an odd ball to me. Frankly, the “fast startup” is actually hibernation with user log-off. Instead of temporarily saving what you had been doing on RAM to the drive, the OS does log off a user. In that state, a similar state to cold startup, Windows take a dump of what it has loaded so far.

The only advantage I can see out of it is, and bear with me, none. Users, in its standard definition, know what a power-off means. We deliberately turn off a device in attempt to literally shut it down. If you would prefer to keep a device turned on, you will keep it on. That’s why we have hibernation: to maximize the efficiency when the device is on standby.

However, hibernation is not equivalent of fresh boot. And the two must be distinguished appropriately. Most computers will inevitably require a cold boot; after all, most problems can be mitigated by simply “Turning it off and on again”. Already there are reports of possible security nightmare in the OS’ behavior. If a machine is off, we don’t expect a freshly “boot” computer to refit its RAM from the previous session.

Personally I would not recommend using fast startup. Look out for a well-supported PC from reasonable manufacturer that include a proper hibernation instead of resorting to cutting corners. This could end ugly, much like ActiveX fiasco.