Sleep Return Timeout for Unattended Wake Up

How to Change Return to Sleep Timeout for Unattended Wake Up in Windows​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to change how many minutes Windows will wait idle after waking up in an unattended state before automatically going back to sleep or hibernation in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

   Tip

Adjusting this wait timeout period can also be handy if you had created a task in Task Scheduler to wake up the computer to run something. You could set this wait timeout period to be long enough for the task to have time to finish running before Windows 7 went back to sleep automatically.

   Note

• If the computer wakes up from sleep mode and is used by you (no longer idle) during this default timeout period, then Windows will not go back to sleep mode automatically after this timeout period. Instead it will use the time period you set in your Power Plan Settings for Sleep or Hibernation.
• This will also affect how long you have to enter your user account password if you have enabled the Require a Password on wakeup option.

   Warning

You can only do this while logged into an administrator account.

OPTION ONE

To Set System Unattended Sleep Timeout in Power Options

1. If the administrator has not already, the System unattended sleep timeout needs to be added to Advanced Power Settings.

2. Open your Advanced Power Settings, expand Sleep and System unattended sleep timeout. (see screenshots below)

3. Set how many minutes you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)

   Note

This option changes the ACSettingIndex (Plugged in) and/or DCSettingIndex (On battery) DWORD values at the registry location below.

Substitute Your Power Plan Registry Key in the path below with the actual registry key for in the table below instead for the power plan this is for.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes\[B][COLOR=red]Your Power Plan Registry Key[/COLOR][/B]\238c9fa8-0aad-41ed-83f4-97be242c8f20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]

Registry Key	Power Plan
381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e	Balanced
8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c	High performance
a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a	Power saver

OPTION TWO

To Set Default System Unattended Sleep Timeout in Registy

NOTE: You can only do this option while logged into an administrator account.1. Press Windows+R to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and click/tap on OK.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes (Windows 7/8) or Continue (Vista).

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below: (See screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0\DefaultPowerSchemeValues

4. In the left pane of regedit, double click/tap on the DefaultPowerSchemeValues key (folder) to expand it. (See screenshot above)

5. Click/tap on the key (see table in tip below) that is for the Power Plan that you want to change the default wait time for. (See screenshot above)
NOTE: Normally, you would just do this for the Power Plan that you have selected (see tip below). If you have more than one user, then you may also want to include their Power Plan, or all of them.

   Tip

Registry Key	Power Plan
381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e	Balanced
8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c	High performance
a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a	Power saver

NOTE: You will not be able to set the wait timeout period for a custom power plan. You can only do so with the default power plans.

6. In the right pane, double click/tap on ACSettingIndex (Plugged in) or DCSettingIndex (On battery) to Modify it. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can choose to do this with one or both of these options to set what you want the wait timeout period to be for them.

7. Dot Decimal, and type in how many seconds you want Wndows to wait before going back to sleep or hibernation automatically after an unattended wakeup. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: The default time is 120 seconds (2 minutes).


8. Close regedit.

9. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply.


That's it,
Shawn Brink

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Add or Remove "System unattended sleep timeout" in Power Options
• How to Change the Power Plan Settings in Windows 7
• How to Select a Power Plan in Windows 7
• How to Create or Delete a Custom Power Plan in Windows 7
• How to Change the Default Action of the Windows 7 Alt+F4 Shut Down Window
• How to Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 7
• How to Restore the Default Power Plan Settings in Windows 7
• How to Run a Windows 7 Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report
• How to Enable or Disable Require Password on Wakeup in Windows 7
• How to Create a Shortcut to Change Power Plans in Windows 7
• How to Create a Task to Wake up the Computer to Run in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Read the Wake Source Log in Event Viewer for Windows 7 and Vista

 

[Brink]

Odd, but at least the registry changes are recognized by Power Options. I'm not sure why any changes you made in Power Options are not updated in the registry even after logging off/on.

 

[Scoop]

Odd, but at least the registry changes are recognized by Power Options. I'm not sure why any changes you made in Power Options are not updated in the registry even after logging off/on.

True. The way I look at it, the Registry value changes are doing the job to keep my PC awake for overnight tasks.

I'm using the wakeup and sleep timeout to keep the PC's (Laptop & Desktop) awake when I run nightly AV scans.

I have a question about the Registry timeout:

Does Windows only apply the sleep timeout when the PC is awakend by Windows Task Scheduler?

For example, I'm running a nightly Acronis incremental Backup task. Acronis wakes up my PC to perform the Backup task. If my PC isn't woke up first by Windows Task Scheduler, does the Sleep Timeout Registry value still apply? Will it keep my PC awake for the length specified in the Registry value, regardless of how the PC was waked up (ie, not by a task in Windows Task Scheduler)?

 

[Brink]

Scoop,

The sleep return timeout setting is used when the PC is awakened by anything.

 

[Scoop]

Scoop,

The sleep return timeout setting is used when the PC is awakened by anything.

That was my guess. I can "semi-retire" my Task Scheduler "Wakeup" task.

I've often wondered why some AV products don't include a "wakeup PC to run unattended nightly HDD scans" option.

I'm running Norton 360. Prior to that, I was running ESET. Neither AV product has a wakeup option.

I have a friend that uses MacAfee and apparently that product includes a wakeup option.

Since Norton has an option to put the PC to sleep after completing the scan, that works well for me.

 

[Brink]

Most likely the programs that do have one may use Task Scheduler anyway though.

 

[pat100]

Scoop - I found that the registry WAS changed to reflect changes in "System unattended sleep timeout" made in the Power options plan but the changes appeared in a different registry key to the one shown above. I found the change I made in the "User" key - a few places down from the "Power Settings" key i.e.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes\8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c\238c9fa8-0aad-41ed-83f4-97be242c8f20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]
"ACSettingIndex"=dword:00001c20
in my case when I set 120 mins (= 1c20 hex)
(I know it's an old post but it might be relevant to a Googler)

 

[pat100]

P.S. Thanks Brink - that "invisible" 2 min default timeout had me baffled

 

[Scoop]

Scoop - I found that the registry WAS changed to reflect changes in "System unattended sleep timeout" made in the Power options plan but the changes appeared in a different registry key to the one shown above. I found the change I made in the "User" key - a few places down from the "Power Settings" key i.e.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes\8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c\238c9fa8-0aad-41ed-83f4-97be242c8f20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]
"ACSettingIndex"=dword:00001c20
in my case when I set 120 mins (= 1c20 hex)
(I know it's an old post but it might be relevant to a Googler)

Thanks for the info . I looked at that location in my Registry before and after changing the unattended sleep timeout value from within the Control Panel/Power Options menu but I didn't see it change the User Registry value. Maybe that's due to my Win 7 setup or how it was installed.

 

[Brink]

Scoop - I found that the registry WAS changed to reflect changes in "System unattended sleep timeout" made in the Power options plan but the changes appeared in a different registry key to the one shown above. I found the change I made in the "User" key - a few places down from the "Power Settings" key i.e.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\User\PowerSchemes\8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c\238c9fa8-0aad-41ed-83f4-97be242c8f20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0]
"ACSettingIndex"=dword:00001c20
in my case when I set 120 mins (= 1c20 hex)
(I know it's an old post but it might be relevant to a Googler)

Hello Pat,

Thank you. The path varies depending on the power plan. I added a note at the bottom of OPTION ONE to help make it easier for this.

 

[kanungos]

Question

I have a question -- I followed your instruction for how to change the sleep return timeout for unattended wake up and it seems to work -- I am using it for the Task Scheduler to wake the computer and do a few things.

My question is that for some reason, after the elasped time I placed in the registry (balanced power scheme in my case), my computer fails to return to sleep at all.

In my case, I set the time to 2 hours, the computer "woke up" as scheduled, but after the 2 hours, it failed to go back to sleep. I did not touch the keyboard or mouse...etc (I scheduled to wake @ 4:00am and when I got up at 7:00am, my computer was still on -- I assume it would have gone back to sleep at 6:00am). I did verify through command prompt that task scheduler did wake the computer from sleep at 4:00am.

Any ideas what is going on?? Is there any "time limit" when you change this feature -- only minutes versus hours...etc.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Brink]

Hello kanungos, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check your task to make sure it is set to not repeat if failed. If it repeats, it could cause the computer not to return to sleep.

 

[kanungos]

Thanks for the info.

I checked and the task was not set to "repeat if failed"

For the most part, the task runs without an issues most of the time but every once in a while, my computer will not go back to sleep at the conclusion of the elapse time set in the task scheduler (it will still be awake)

Is there any way to tell if something else "occurred" that made the task scheduler fail to put the computer back to sleep (i.e. a windows update, a required restart...etc.) Even if something else did occur, my understanding is that the computer "switches back" to the the default power settings (in my case, it is the balanced power option which is suppose to put the computer back to sleep in 30 minutes)

The only think different in my computer that I have noted is the Windows 10 app in the lower right hand corner in the task so not sure if that would have anything to do with it or not.

Let me know your thoughts and I appreciate your assistance.

 

[Brink]

Yeah, it sounds like there was something else running that prevented the return to sleep. However, it could be anything though. When this happens check in Task Manager to see what's running to see if anything stands out each time it happens.

 

[kanungos]

Thanks for your help.

 

[kanungos]

I tried what you said -- Task manager has so many things listed it is difficult to know what caused the return to sleep feature to activated. Strange enough, after I do something (mouse click, push keyboard button...etc), the default sleep timer kicks in and it goes back to sleep after 2 minutes. Any other ideas on how to figure what is preventing the sleep timer from kicking back on after the elapsed time I set by your method??

Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Usually when this happens, it's something still running and performing some action that is preventing the return to sleep from unattended wakeup.

A workaround would be to include a sleep command for your task so that it will put the computer back to sleep afterwards.

rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61430-sleep-shortcut-create.html

 

[kanungos]

Hi Brink,

Thanks for the suggestion. I am still somewhat new to Seven Forums so bear with me when it comes to some of the questions I ask.

Once I have created the sleep command shortcut, where exactly would I put the sleep shortcut command in the task scheduler "task" that I originally created (in actions tab, triggers tab...etc)??

Or would I just create a new "task" in the scheduler to run this sleep command shortcut at a designated time once the original "task" is completed (i.e. after 2 hour time I set for the original task)???

Does what I am asking making sense?? Thanks for your patience.

 

[Brink]

You could use the command in your current task instead, or create a new one.

 

[kanungos]

How do you do that?

If you have a tutorial in the forum, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

[Brink]

You could just add a new action in the task that you already created.