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Device guide — Windows 11 & 10

Keep a Windows screen awake

Windows gives you four separate timers for the screen and sleep — on battery and plugged in. Here's where they live, the command-line shortcut, and what to do when the settings are locked by IT.

The settings route (permanent)

On Windows 11, everything lives in one place:

  1. Open Settings → System → Power & battery.
  2. Expand Screen and sleep.
  3. Set “Turn my screen off after” to your preference — Never is available for both battery and plugged in.
  4. Check “Put my device to sleep after” too — it's a separate timer that suspends the whole PC, not just the display.

On Windows 10 the path is shorter: Settings → System → Power & sleep, with the same screen/sleep pairs. Changing the screen timer to Never keeps the display on; leaving the sleep timer short still lets the machine suspend.

The command route (fast, scriptable)

powercfg edits the active power plan directly. Open a terminal and run:

powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0   :: screen never off (plugged in)
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-dc 10  :: 10 minutes on battery
powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0   :: PC never sleeps (plugged in)

Values are in minutes; 0 means never. These changes apply instantly and survive restarts — set them back when you're done.

Presenting? Use Presentation mode

Windows has a built-in switch for exactly this scenario: press Win + X, open Mobility Center, and enable the presentation tile. While it's on, the screen won't turn off, system notifications are muted, and the screensaver is suppressed. It turns itself off when you disable it — no settings left behind.

The no-admin, no-install route

On a work laptop where Settings are greyed out by policy, or when you only need this for the next hour: this site's tool holds a screen wake lock through Chrome, Edge or Firefox on Windows. Nothing to install, nothing to undo, and IT policies about power settingsaren't touched (an enforced auto-lock, however, is a security control the browser can't and shouldn't beat).

Troubleshooting

  • Screen still turns off at 1–2 minutes. Windows has a hidden “System unattended sleep timeout” (it targets the lock screen after idle). Search for guides on unhiding it in advanced power settings, or use the wake-lock tool above.
  • Laptops with Modern Standby (S0). On many recent laptops the machine may enter a low-power idle that pauses apps even while the screen looks dimmed. For guaranteed uptime during monitoring, keep the screen on with the tool and the lid open.
  • Lid closed with an external monitor. Set Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what closing the lid does to “Do nothing” when plugged in — no web tool can override lid-close sleep.