Guides

How to stop Windows from sleeping during a long download

You start a 100 GB game download or a big backup, walk away, and come back to find it barely moved. Windows went to sleep, and a sleeping PC downloads nothing.

Why it happens

Windows decides you've left based on the keyboard and mouse, not network traffic. An app can tell Windows "I'm busy, don't sleep", but many download managers, launchers and command-line tools don't. So after the idle time in your power settings (often 15–30 minutes), the PC sleeps mid-download.

Option 1: change the sleep timer for tonight

  1. Open Settings → System → Power & battery (on Windows 10: System → Power & sleep).
  2. Set the sleep time when plugged in to Never.
  3. Set it back tomorrow. This is the step everyone forgets, and a PC that never sleeps wastes power every night.

The same from a terminal: powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0, and later powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 30.

Option 2: check whether your app already keeps the PC awake

While the download runs, open Command Prompt as administrator and run powercfg /requests. If your launcher or browser is listed under SYSTEM, it's already asking Windows to stay awake and you don't need to change anything. If the list is empty, Windows will sleep on its usual schedule.

Option 3: keep it awake just until the download is done

A keep-awake app holds that "I'm busy" request for you, for a set time, and releases it afterwards, so you don't have to remember to undo anything. See the caffeinate for Windows guide for a free PowerShell version, or use Keeplit below.

Tips for big overnight downloads