How to keep your Windows PC awake using Microsoft PowerToys

How to go along your PC awake without touching it

(Epitome credit: Shutterstock)

You doubtless know how to keep your PC awake by moving your mouse or hit a central, just to tell it you're still there. This stops your system going into Slumber mode, which it can take a while to wake up from, and prevents Windows from logging you out.

Although Sleep mode conserves power, saving battery life and keeping your energy costs down, and too protects your privacy when there are other people around, it's sometimes more of a hindrance than a help.

If you want to go on your screen on and your hard drive active while Windows performs an important task, or yous just don't want the hassle of logging in again, and then keeping your PC awake has several benefits.

How to turn on Windows 10 Dark Mode automatically
And the best gaming desktop PCs
How to create a Kill Switch in Windows

To end your PC going to slumber without needing to touch your mouse or keyboard, yous can either use options congenital into Windows 10, or install a third-political party program to give your motorcar the virtual caffeine.

In our guide below, we'll walk you through both methods and explain how to keep your PC awake for a specific fourth dimension or indefinitely.

How to go along your PC awake using Windows Power Options

The traditional way to prevent your PC from going to sleep is to tweak your current power plan in Windows' Power Options. Information technology's not as simple every bit the PowerToys method we'll explain, but saves y'all having to download any software. Here's how to exercise information technology.

1. Type "ability" into the Windows 10 search box and click the "Power & sleep settings" option at the meridian of the results list.

On a Windows laptop, you lot can relieve time past clicking the battery icon in the arrangement tray and choosing "More power options," then jump to pace 3.

how to keep your pc awake - power — (Image credit: Microsoft)

two. When the "Power & sleep" screen opens, select "Boosted power settings" to open Windows 10's Power Options.

how to keep your pc awake - additional power — (Paradigm credit: Microsoft)

3. Click "Modify plan settings" next to your currently selected power plan. Alternatively, you tin cull "Create a ability plan" to gear up upwardly a new plan instead.

how to keep your pc awake - change power plan — (Epitome credit: Microsoft)

four. Click the "Turn off the display" drop-downwards menu to decide how long Windows should wait before switching off your screen, from one minute to 5 hours to "Never."

If you lot're using a laptop, you tin can have unlike settings for when it'due south plugged in or running on bombardment.

Exercise the aforementioned for the "Put your calculator to slumber" settings, choosing the length of time that best suits you lot — or "Never" if you lot prefer.

how to keep your pc awake - choose sleep settings — (Image credit: Microsoft)

You tin can modify the sleep settings back to what they were, or switch to another ability plan, when you no longer need to keep your PC awake.

How to keep your Windows PC awake using PowerToys Awake

There's now a quicker official manner to stop your PC and monitor going to sleep, through Microsoft PowerToys. This prepare of organisation utilities for tweaking Windows 10 is free to download and packed with useful options. Here's how to utilise its Awake feature.

i. Visit the GitHub page for Microsoft PowerToys and download the PowerToysSetup executable file. You'll discover the link at the lesser of the page.

Install the programme on your PC and launch it from the Get-go carte du jour.

how to keep your pc awake - download powertoys — (Image credit: Microsoft)

2. When PowerToys opens, click the Awake option in the left-hand menu and ensure that the "Enable Awake" switch is activated.

how to keep your pc awake - enable awake — (Paradigm credit: Microsoft)

3. You can now decide how awake you want your PC to be. Select "Proceed screen on," under the Behavior heading, to stop Windows switching off your monitor automatically.

In the Mode section, you can change the setting from "Off (Passive)," which puts your calculator to sleep based on your current ability program, to "Keep awake indefinitely," which keeps your PC active until you manually put information technology to sleep or plough it off.

how to keep your pc awake - keep on — (Image credit: Microsoft)

4. Alternatively, select "Keep awake temporarily" to keep your estimator awake until a specific length of fourth dimension has elapsed.

Click the arrows in the "Hours" and "Minutes" boxes to specify how long Windows should wait until it puts your PC to sleep.

how to keep your pc awake - time — (Image credit: Microsoft)

5. You can quickly change Awake'southward settings without needing to open up PowerToys by right-clicking its icon in your system tray. This looks like a blue cup of coffee.

The pop-up card lets you select or deselect the "Continue screen on" choice, and switch between Awake'due south 3 modes. If you cull "Continue awake temporarily," you can cull either 30 minutes, one hr or two hours.

If y'all don't encounter Awake'southward coffee cup icon, click the up arrow adjacent to the system tray and you should find it there. Drag the icon to the tray for easier access.

how to keep your pc awake - system tray — (Prototype credit: Microsoft)

Provided that PowerToys is running, yous can now effortlessly keep your PC awake for as long as you want, without needing to change your power plan or move your mouse to wake information technology up.

More than: How to enable God Mode in Windows

Robert Irvine is How-To Editor at Tom's Guide. He has been writing tutorials most software, hardware, websites and other tech topics since the days of dial-up modems, and was previously the editor of Web User mag. Robert enjoys cooking, and makes a hateful sausage goulash, only is definitely not the celebrity chef of the same name.