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I have a Windows 10 machine that I have configured for Wake-on-LAN, including disabling Windows's "fast startup" feature. This machine is an old laptop, which I intend to run with the lid closed and only access via network. I have set it to never automatically sleep, either in the On battery or Plugged in states, and to do nothing on lid close.

Power Settings

On normal, non Wake-on-LAN startup and resume, I can access the laptop remotely with no problems for as long as I want the system to run. However, once I Suspend (Sleep) the laptop, I can resume it successfully with Wake-on-LAN, but then it suspends itself again after some time, on the order of minutes, rather than hours.

I have observed this behavior now with two separate laptops. What other setting(s) do I need to set to ensure that Windows does not suspend itself after resumption from sleep?

palswim
  • 3,601

2 Answers2

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Seems if a laptop is woken up using WoL, then Windows treats it differently. If there is no input to the machine within 2 minutes, then Windows puts it back to sleep.

There are several solutions which might help here.

Change System Unattended Sleep Timeout in Windows 10

The System unattended sleep timeout power setting is the idle timeout before the system returns to a low power sleep state after waking unattended. To change, run the command:

 powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 [seconds]

Substitute in the commands above how many seconds you want for timeout, which will show rounded up or down to the nearest minute in Power Options. The default time is 120 seconds (2 minutes).

Setting the default system unattended sleep timeout in the Registry

Under registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0\DefaultPowerSchemeValues, you will find a sub-key for each power plan:

  • 381b for Balanced
  • 8c5e for High Performance
  • a184 for Power Saver

The default value for all is 120 seconds.

To ensure that the computer stays awake, you could either continue to actively work with it without pause, or run a program to keep it awake.

One such program is Insomnia:

enter image description here

harrymc
  • 498,455
0

Thanks to the previous answer's tip on the Unattended Sleep Timeout setting, I have discovered that to disable Windows returning to sleep after Wake-on-LAN (or wake from Timer or any other reason), I have to set the Unattended Sleep Timeout setting to 0.

Power Options

If you look at the Power Options on your Windows PC, you will probably not find the setting for System unattended sleep timeout. To add it to the list of options, I can make a registry change or I can run a command as an Administrator (Elevated):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]
"Attributes"=dword:00000002

or

powercfg -attributes SUB_SLEEP 7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 -ATTRIB_HIDE
palswim
  • 3,601