How to Temporarily Disable Sleep Mode in Windows 10/11

Want to disable sleep mode in Windows, but only for a short period of time? These apps make keeping your PC awake for a brief spell easy.

The Windows operating system features built-in power options to help you configure power and sleep settings for your PC. When enabled, by default, Windows will go to sleep after 15-30 minutes of inactivity. However, what if you want to keep your PC awake for a longer time?

One way to achieve this is to change your sleep settings at the system level. However, when you want your PC to sleep again, you have to go through your settings and reset this option. As such, let’s explore a few Windows apps that can keep your PC awake, but are really easy to turn off again for a more temporary experience.

1. Keep Your PC Awake with PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of tools for advanced users that lets you do more with your Windows 10 and 11 systems. However, for this guide, we will be exploring its Awake feature.

Awake is a PowerToys feature that lets you keep your PC awake on-demand. You can choose to keep your PC awake temporarily with a timer or indefinitely.

To prevent Windows from sleeping while a program is running:

1. Go to Microsoft’s GitHub page and download the PowerToysSetup-X64.exe file. Run the PowerToysSetup file and install the app.
2. Next, launch PowerToys and open the Awake tab in the left pane.
3. Here, toggle the switch for Enable Awake to turn it on.

4. Scroll down to the Behavior section. Here, click the drop-down for Mode and select Keep awake temporarily. If you select Keep awake indefinitely, your PC will stay awake until you disable this option.
5. For the temporary mode, set the hours and minutes.

6. Next, toggle the Keep screen on switch if you want to keep your screen on.

PowerToys will now keep your PC awake for the specified time. If you need to disable it, change the Behavior Mode to Keep using the selected power plan.

Apart from keeping your PC awake, PowerToys can also help you with other handy tools. Check out our other guides to learn more:

Download: Microsoft PowerToys

2. Keep Your PC Awake With Insomnia

As the name suggests, Insomnia makes it hard for your PC to sleep. It is a free-ware third-party lightweight utility to momentarily disable the sleep mode in Windows.

When enabled, it calls the SetThreadExecutionState API to inform the system that it is currently in use, thereby preventing it from entering sleep mode.

When you open the program, a pop-up window with the message “This computer can not go to sleep while this window is open” will appear. Minimize the window to keep running it in the background, and your PC won’t sleep. Closing the Window will end the app and restore your system’s default power settings.

On the flip side, it doesn’t have any option to keep your screen on. If you need to keep your screen on, consider using PowerToys’ Awake feature instead.

Download: Insomnia

3. Use Don’t Sleep to Lock Sleep and Shutdown

Don’t Sleep offers more power management options than PowerToys and Insomnia. Don’t Sleep can block sleep, hibernation, and keep your screen on. Interestingly, it can also help you block accidental shutdowns.

You can use Don’t Sleep to configure both sleep and awake options.

To use Don’t Sleep:

1. Download the compatible version of the app from the official page.
2. Extract the zip file and run the executable file.
3. Next, open the Please Don’t Sleep tab.
4. Here, you can select the power options to block under Preferences. By default, all the power options are blocked by the app.
5. In the Timer tab, you can specify a time for the app to block sleep.
6. You can also configure the app to stop blocking based on the battery, CPU, and network parameters of your system.
7. Select the Disabled option in the top-right corner to disable the app.

Don’t Sleep also feature some additional feature in the toolbar. For example, click the Monitor option and select Monitor Off to turn off your display.

Download: Don’t Sleep

Temporarily Disable Sleep Mode in Windows 10/11

Not all programs can suppress the default sleep behavior of your Windows computer. So, if the sleep mode disrupts your workflow, you can use these third-party utilities to keep your PC awake for a specified period.