How to disable Auto Sleep mode in Windows 7

November 20, 2009 By Avinash in Microsoft Tags: computing, disable, Microsoft, Windows 7

Windows 7 brings lot of new features and changes in the way Windows work. One of the features which though isn’t new is the auto sleep mode in which the system gets in sleep mode after 10 minutes. This particular feature was giving me troubles yesterday when i was trying to download Microsoft office 2010 beta profession plus.

As my Internet connection is not so fast and the file was around 700 mb , so i just started the download and switched off the monitor and went to sleep. But when i returned back to system after 6-7 hours, i found the download just got paused after 10 minutes, the reason being auto sleepÂ mode. The system went into sleep mode when i left it.

HOW TO DISBALE AUTO SLEEP MODE

To disable it or change its configuration, Navigate to Control pane l>> Power options. Then you will see the option of selecting the power plan. By default, The “Balanced” option is checked.

Just on right side of it, click on “Change plan settings”.

In the settings, just change the time when you want the computer to sleep. You can change it to “Never” if you want to disable it fully. Otherwise change to a value suitable to you e.g. 1 hour, 2 hour etc.

Save your settings and you are done. Now the computer can download your big files even if you are not on it.

Avinash Kumar

A Mechanical Design Engineer by profession, but passionate about Computers, software and anything that helps to learn something new or different. Love to do things which i don't know and dive into unknown territories.

57 Comments

Tomeyro
September 9, 2010 @ 9:15 PM

Oh Thanks!! I was trying to download something and I had to keep pressing the space bar all the time! xD Lol!
Math3usd
September 24, 2010 @ 10:34 PM

Thank’s man
Antony Kidis
October 18, 2010 @ 3:45 AM

Helpful thanks for the post 🙂
Frost_ed
October 22, 2010 @ 3:35 AM

thank you!!!
Navaleo
December 7, 2010 @ 6:43 PM

Thanks!! Ð¯ ÑƒÐ²ÐµÑÑŒ Ñ‡Ð°Ñ Ð²Ð¼Ð¸ÐºÑŽ Ð’Ñ–Ð½Ð°Ð¼Ð¿ Ð· Ð¼ÑƒÐ·Ð¸ÐºÐ¾ÑŽ Ð¿Ð¾ ÐºÐ¾Ð»Ñƒ, Ñ‰Ð¾Ð± ÐºÐ¾Ð¼ Ð½Ðµ ÑÐ¿Ð°Ð²))))))))
Rick
December 9, 2010 @ 1:48 AM

This was awesome… just one thing. I couldn’t find “Power Options” until I figured out to see control panel in large or small icons. Not a biggie but its worth noting for people who would otherwise get lost on the first step 🙂
Edu_bolivar
December 13, 2010 @ 8:42 AM

vlw amigo sua dica me ajudou num problema aki
mt util pra min
abraÃ§os
Suseel_jacob
December 14, 2010 @ 10:16 AM

Thanks for the help
dxm
December 22, 2010 @ 6:54 PM

AWEsome! Couldn’t get my Citrix remote desktop to work and now I know why! You saved me a day at the office…
persia
December 27, 2010 @ 5:02 AM

thanks for the usefull post
Guy
December 29, 2010 @ 1:14 AM

Thanks.
william76
January 2, 2011 @ 9:15 AM

problem is, we should not HAVE to disable sleep or extend sleep time frames… windows is smart enough to know when a process is running or not. If it wasn’t, having hdd drives power down from XP power saving profiles would’ve interrupted processes all of the time. Absolutely ridiculous
Rishad
January 8, 2011 @ 6:57 PM

Thank you very much…………i had also the same problem…….and thanks for the help
Dor
January 11, 2011 @ 3:40 AM

Thank u )
AS
January 25, 2011 @ 9:51 AM

Thanks!!!!
Neill
January 29, 2011 @ 9:43 PM

thanks it helps me a lot… i have similar thing happen, when im downloading a movie, i let my laptop download it cuz it takes 1 hour to finished it… just like u, when i returned, i’ve found the download just got paused after 10 minutes The system went into sleep mode when i left it… and when i want to continue the download, its said error… thats annoying but thanks to u i can shut this auto sleepy mode up so i can download happily…
Miss_rms
February 18, 2011 @ 9:42 PM

Extremly useful. Thank you so much
Rebarfab1
February 20, 2011 @ 4:04 AM

Thank You VERY much. Auto-sleep was really messing things up for me.
Michael
March 19, 2011 @ 1:38 AM

Many Thanks
Pica
March 22, 2011 @ 12:47 AM

thx
Lionscorp
March 29, 2011 @ 10:10 PM

Thanks !! it was a great help had the same problem.
mike dise
April 10, 2011 @ 10:54 PM

thanks alot that helped me alot thank you
walter
May 19, 2011 @ 5:33 PM

en win7 seria : inicio/panel de control/ardware y sonido/opciones de energia/cambiar la frecuencia en que el equipo entra en estado de suspension.
rishabh
May 31, 2011 @ 12:00 AM

thanx dude (^_^)
nitin
June 15, 2011 @ 8:09 PM

thanx
rrr
June 17, 2011 @ 8:04 PM

ty
david Kim
July 3, 2011 @ 12:07 PM

thanks a lot!
Jan Buys
July 3, 2011 @ 3:27 PM

Thanks a stack. You saved one computer from going through the window.
Nandu Abhi5
July 12, 2011 @ 7:36 AM

Thanks man….. I owe you one.
Jonny B. Goode
July 30, 2011 @ 9:18 PM

Thanks for the instruction. As I’m an XP OS guy and at the moment HATE Windows 7, I appreciate the help!
Ti_anik2011
November 30, 2011 @ 11:09 AM

Thank you Mr.Avinash, It’s really very helpful…
Greet
December 12, 2011 @ 5:58 PM

10q
walahat
January 3, 2012 @ 12:38 PM

tnx for the info
Sk8 4life
January 23, 2012 @ 8:03 PM

muchas gracias!! Thank you a lot.
anonymous
February 5, 2012 @ 2:07 AM

thanks ;D
Helmi
February 16, 2012 @ 1:04 AM

Thank you very much. I was so helpful.
AVIK
May 17, 2012 @ 11:31 PM

thnk u …..
thnk u
Ben
June 5, 2012 @ 9:14 PM

I have all my sleep options set to never, yet after 10 minutes, it sleeps and goes to the screen I have to hit ctrl+alt+del to sign in.
How can I change this?
- Avinash
  June 6, 2012 @ 8:13 AM
  
  can you attach a screenshot of your power options?
Mehran
June 16, 2012 @ 8:20 PM

thanks really helpful
pat
June 24, 2012 @ 2:36 AM

thanks mate
!
adi
July 11, 2012 @ 7:18 PM

thanq u
Jamsheer
August 25, 2012 @ 5:48 PM

Thanks Dear Avinash!
Ajay
August 30, 2012 @ 5:06 PM

How to disable sleep mode for win 7 from registry
John Doe
September 11, 2012 @ 1:32 PM

Thanks Bud worked perfect!
Michele
September 13, 2012 @ 4:58 AM

Thank you! It was annoying when it kept going to sleep. Fixed now. :0)
Maarten Kuilman
September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM

Thanks! I had the same kind of problem!
- Avinash Kumar
  September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM
  
  Glad it helped you. Hopefully, Microsoft doesn’t makes it as a default feature in next windows
Anonymous
September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM

thanks so much for this.. I felt like a noob after reading this… anyways, thanks again!
- Avinash Kumar
  September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM
  
  Well, yes the trick is too simple and yet I wrote this post as majority of users wont even think that it can be fixed like that. 🙂
Renzo Cipolla
September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM

buena voz
Reed Donovan
September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM

Great guide, I had trouble finding “all control panel options” so I searched it and my setting were in the “Hardware and Sound area”.
- Avinash Kumar
  September 17, 2012 @ 4:04 PM
  
  Glad to know that it helped you. Sometime even simple things look too complicated unless you find it as simple.
tbj
December 6, 2012 @ 5:54 PM

Thanks for this information.
Thesamboyman
December 30, 2012 @ 4:35 AM

thanks it worked!!! My Planetside 2 didnt download overnight :/ but now it will!
THANKS AGAIn
TheDevian
June 15, 2015 @ 7:06 AM

knew all that, problem is, it didn’t work, computer is STILL gong to sleep… and you explaining the obvious to people, is preventing me from finding posts to the real problem.