aNewDomain.net — It’s annoying. You set up Windows to sleep overnight so you save some power. Then you wake up to see it’s been running all night. Why did Windows turn the system back on? The usual culprit is the keyboard or mouse. If the mouse got jostled even a little bit — or your cat sat on the keyboard — the system turned back on. That’s why. But it’s easy to prevent such mishaps by following the process to change Windows settings below. Here’s How To stop your keyboard and mouse from waking up Windows — and How To make Windows stay asleep all night long. I’m your How To gallery captain Brian Burgess.
How To: Prevent Your Keyboard and Mouse from Waking Up Windows
To prevent either peripheral device from waking your PC, open Control Panel.
Select either Mouse or Keyboard. Here I’m showing the process using the mouse, but don’t worry, the steps are the same for the keyboard.
In the Properties screen that opens next, select the Hardware tab. Now click the Properties button.
Click Change settings.
Now click the Power Management tab and uncheck Allow this device to wake the computer. Click OK.
The only caveat to this process is if you really do want to easily wake up Windows just by shaking the mouse or hitting a key. After you fix your settings as I show above, from now on you’ll need to press the Power button to wake up your Windows system.
That’s a minor inconvenience, but well worth it.
For aNewDomain.net, I’m the How To gallery captain Brian Burgess.
Based in Pelican Rapids, MN, Brian Burgess led the relaunch of BYTE with Gina Smith, co-founded aNewDomain.net with Gina, John C. Dvorak and Jerry Pournelle in 2011, and serves as the editor-in-chief of GroovyPost.com. He is the How To gallery captain here at aNewDomain.net. Email him at Brian@aNewDomain.net or Brian@Groovypost.com and find him on Google + and on Twitter as @mysticgeek.
