How to temporarily disable sleep mode in Windows 10/11

Do you want to disable sleep mode in Windows, but only for a short period of time? These apps make it easy to keep your PC awake for a short time.

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

One way to accomplish this is to change the sleep settings at the system level. However, when you want your PC to go back to sleep, you should review your settings and reset this option. As such, let’s explore some 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 active with PowerToys

Microsoft PowerToys is a collection of tools for power users that let you do more with your Windows 10 and 11 systems. However, for this guide, we’ll explore its Awake feature.

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

To prevent Windows from going to sleep while a program is running:

1. Go to Microsoft’s GitHub page and download the File PowerToysSetup-X64.exe. Run the PowerToysSetup file and install the application.
2. then throw PowerToys and open the Awake tab in the left panel.
3. Here, toggle the switch to enable awake Turn it on.

4. Scroll down to the Behaviour section. Here, click the dropdown menu to Mode and select Stay awake temporarily. If you select Keep awake indefinitely, your PC will remain awake until you disable this option.
5. For temporary mode, set the hours and minutes.

6. Then change the keep screen on switch if you want to keep the screen on.

PowerToys will now keep your PC awake for the specified amount of time. If you need to disable it, change the behavior mode a Continue using the selected power plan.

Apart from keeping your PC awake, PowerToys can also help you with other useful tools. Check out our other guides for more information:

Discharge: 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 freeware third-party lightweight utility to momentarily disable sleep mode in Windows.

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

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

On the other hand, you don’t have any option to keep the screen on. If you need to keep your screen on, consider using PowerToys’ Awake feature instead.

Discharge: Insomnia

3. Use Don’t Sleep to lock sleep mode and shutdown

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

You can use Don’t Sleep to set sleep and wake options.

To use Keep Sleep:

1. Download the compatible version of the application from the official page.
2. Extract the zip file and run the executable file.
3. Then open the please don’t sleep tab.
4. Here, you can select the power options to lock on preferences. By default, all power options are locked by the app.
5. In the timer tab, you can specify a time for the application to block sleep.
6. You can also set the app to stop blocking based on battery, CPU and network parameters of your system.
7. Select the disabled option in the upper right corner to disable the application.

Don’t Sleep also has some additional toolbar features. For example, click the Display option and select monitor off to turn off your screen.

Discharge: do not sleep

Temporarily disable sleep mode in Windows 10/11

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