Windows 7 and activity scheduled for early morning

I just configured a laptop running Windows 7.

The Windows updates are set to push to the computer in the early morning hours (I forget which, but call it 3 or 4 in the morning). Similarly, I have the AVG antivirus updates and scans scheduled for early morning hours.

The night I got the computer configured, I deliberately left it running, but closed it, which I believe puts it to "sleep" with the idea that the Windows and AVG stuff could do their thing.

But when I opened the computer the next morning, no Windows updates had happened, and the AVG stuff launched right away (it's configured to launch as soon as the computer is started, if it misses a scheduled task).

The laptop is not mine; it's for one of my children. I am frankly ignorant in the ways of laptops, and this one represents my first Windows 7 computer.

Is there something special I need to do so that Windows updates, AVG updates and scans, etc., automatically run when the computer is closed but powered on?

Laptops can be a little different, but you could try going into the power plan settings in Control Panel -> Advanced settings, and under the Sleep section, make sure that Wake Timers are enabled.

Hope that works for you.

If you are using a laptop which is on AC power, Windows will wake the computer up and perform the update, otherwise the updates will be postponed to the next scheduled time.

This continues to be something I'm wrestling with.

The specific problem is with AVG free edition, latest version (just installed this week on a new laptop).

Wake timers are enabled (see #2 answer above).

But if I have an AVG scheduled scan set for a time that the computer is powered on (even logged on) but closed (and thus in sleep mode), AVG will not launch until the computer is opened and engaged again.

On the one hand, the computer is powerful enough that running AVG while using it for other purposes is no big deal. It slows nothing down.

On the other, I like this kind of stuff to run at night, and see no reason why I could make that happen in XP, but not now in Windows 7. So there must be a way, right?

I wonder if it would wake up and do the scan if it was an explicitly defined event in task manager?

I'm not the biggest expert on the TM, but I've also had backup software not wake my wife's computer before. In her case, it was the S3 wake/suspend setting in BIOS, and changing the motherboard to a newer one with better BIOS support made the problem go away.

That isn't possible for you, obviously, but I did read elsewhere on this forum about using the task manager to force an event. Maybe the tutorial section has some info on this, or someone with a bit more experience with the TM can help.

Maybe setting the lid action to another sleep mode, or suspend might work. I wish I could help more, but it's some ideas at least.