Putting your Windows PC in sleep mode is the best way to save on battery and energy bills. But sometimes, the PC wakes up, and you have no idea what did that. This post will share how to check which devices can wake your PC from sleep mode. It will help you figure out how to remove those devices, take control of power management, and tailor it to your needs.
How to Check Which Devices Can Wake Your PC From Sleep Mode?
There are three steps to check and disable devices that can wake your Windows PC from sleep mode. These steps are:
- Check which devices are capable of waking your PC from Sleep Mode
- Check which devices are allowed to wake your Windows from Sleep Mode
- Allow or Deny permission to a device to wake your PC from Sleep Mode
You will need admin permission for some of these commands.
1] Check Which Devices Are Capable of Waking Your PC From Sleep Mode
There are a lot of devices connected to your PC that can wake up your computer. And you can find them by following the below steps:
- First, press Windows Key + X to launch Quick Menu.
- Launch Windows Terminal (Admin).
- Over here, run the following command and press Enter key:
powercfg -devicequery wake_from_any
The command will instantly list all the devices capable of waking your PC from sleep mode. The devices run on low power mode, but interruptions or events can wake them. A slight mouse movement or a key press and so on.
2] Check Which Devices Are Allowed to Wake Your Windows From Sleep Mode
When we say a device is allowed to wake up your Windows PC, it means the device on your PC is running in low-power mode and waiting for a specific interrupt. When it happens, it wakes up your PC, i.e., The device is essentially “armed” to wake up when the specified event occurs.
A simple example is when you enable the Wake On Lan feature on your PC; it will only wake your PC when another device sends such a trigger on the same network.
We will use the wake_armed option with the Power Configuration command to find a list of such devices.
- Open Windows Terminal (Admin), type the following command, and press the Enter key:
powercfg -devicequery wake_armed
The command will list all the devices that can wake your Windows from sleep mode.
3] Allow or Deny Permission to a Device to Wake Your PC From Sleep Mode
Now you know which devices can wake your PC and Windows from sleep mode. You might want to disable some of those devices.
Disabling devices like Mouse or keyboard press would be a good idea. There can be accidental interactions with these devices that can wake your PC up even when you don’t want to.
But alongside, you should also ensure that you have a device that can wake your PC up apart from your mouse and keyboard.
To allow or deny devices, follow the below steps:
- Open Device Manager
- Locate, right-click on the device you want to configure and go to Properties.
- Go to the Power Management tab.
- Over here, uncheck the Allow this device to wake the computer option to allow or deny the device to wake up your computer.
Conclusion
So that was a quick way to check which devices wake your computer from sleep mode and how to disable those devices. Once done, you can further configure the PowerPlan and have more control over the energy spent. Go ahead and try it out by yourself and see how the steps are working for you.
How to Find Out What Woke Your Computer From Sleep Mode?
Sometimes, you might also want to know what woke your computer from sleep mode. So you can disable the device.
Fortunately, Windows allows you to know what woke your PC from sleep mode in most cases. To find it out, follow these steps:
- Run the following command on the Windows Terminal (Admin)
powercfg -lastwake
If you are lucky, it will tell you the device’s name.
But in certain cases, you might not see the device. For instance, if some application woke your PC from sleep mode, you need to see your App History using Task Manager to find it out.
