How to create a shortcut to put Windows into sleep mode

From my experimentation, there is no direct way to create a shortcut in Windows that just puts it to sleep. You can make a shortcut that will make it restart, shutdown, or hibernate, but not sleep despite what I have read on the web.

However, if you download PsTools from Microsoft's website, you can make a shortcut that will put your computer into sleep mode:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897541.aspx

PsTools is a collection of very useful command line utilities that require no installation to use and does not leave any resident processes in your memory. It works for both Vista and XP. Just extract the files to the directory C:\PsTools. Besides allowing a shortcut for sleep, you can also make it hibernate, shutdown, restart, or logoff.

To make a shortcut that puts your computer to sleep, right-click on your desktop -> New -> Shortcut. Put the following as the target you want to run:

C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -d -t 00

That's all it takes folks! You can now double-click that shortcut and your computer sleeps!

For shutdown use:
C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -k -t 00

For restart use:
C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -r -t 00

For hibernate use:
C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -h -t 00

For logoff use:
C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -o -t 00

To lock the computer use:
C:\PsTools\psshutdown.exe -l -t 00

 

Or you can just press FN + ___. I think most notebooks have that keyboard shortcut.

 

I prefer to have a sleep shortcut on the upper right of my toolbar for easy mouseclicking:

 

why don't you get a dock?
a lot nicer than vista's launch bar

 

actually, most laptops have a default setting w/ vista to use the power button for sleep...........

you can adjust it under power options--> advanced power options--> power button>> sleep> if it's not already the default........

 

I think the Vista launch bar looks pretty nice with the aero effects and I don't want any of that 3D animation a lot of 3rd party dock bars have. The Vista launch bar does everything I want it to and I don't have to take a big performance hit for installing something else.

 

Problem is that I want my power button to make my laptop go into hibernation, which it is already doing. When I close my lid, it goes into sleep mode but a lot of times I'm not moving the laptop anywhere and I don't want to prematurely wear out the hinges by closing the lid so many times.