How to disable Auto Sleep mode in 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.

57 COMMENTS

Tomeyro September 9, 2010 At 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 At 10:34 PM

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

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

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

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Rick December 9, 2010 At 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 At 8:42 AM

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

Thanks for the help
dxm December 22, 2010 At 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 At 5:02 AM

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

Thanks.
william76 January 2, 2011 At 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 At 6:57 PM

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

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

Thanks!!!!
Neill January 29, 2011 At 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 At 9:42 PM

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

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

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

thx
Lionscorp March 29, 2011 At 10:10 PM

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

thanks alot that helped me alot thank you
walter May 19, 2011 At 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 At 12:00 AM

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

thanx
rrr June 17, 2011 At 8:04 PM

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

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

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

Thanks man….. I owe you one.
Jonny B. Goode July 30, 2011 At 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 At 11:09 AM

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

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

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

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

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

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

thnk u …..
thnk u
Ben June 5, 2012 At 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 At 8:13 AM
  
  can you attach a screenshot of your power options?
Mehran June 16, 2012 At 8:20 PM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

thanks so much for this.. I felt like a noob after reading this… anyways, thanks again!
- Avinash Kumar September 17, 2012 At 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 At 4:04 PM

buena voz
Reed Donovan September 17, 2012 At 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 At 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 At 5:54 PM

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

thanks it worked!!! My Planetside 2 didnt download overnight :/ but now it will!
THANKS AGAIn
TheDevian June 15, 2015 At 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.