Insomnia actually tries to disable sleep mode while it’s open and then puts the setting back to what it was previously on close. This simple little portable tool will prevent your computer from going into standby while it’s running. Here’s a selection of free tools that can help, they were all tested on Windows 10 64-bit. Some software has the ability to keep the display or computer on while running such as a video player or video encoder but not all software has this option.Ī simple solution so you don’t have to touch any power plans or sleep settings is to use a third party utility that temporarily prevents the computer or screen from going into standby. If you don’t revert the chosen power options back, you’re left with settings you might not want on a permanent basis. Or you can go to Settings in Windows 10 and simply change or disable the sleep timers for the current plan. You can of course go to the Power Options in Control Panel and create or edit a power plan that keeps the computer and display on.

However, this is not always the case and sometimes you might not be at the computer but don’t want it to shut off the display or go into standby for a while.

If you don’t move the mouse or touch the keyboard within a specific period of time, Windows thinks you’re away and will perform the selected action to conserve power. It can do this by turning off the display when there is no activity for a given period and also do a similar thing to put the computer to sleep. Verdict:Īn effective way to gain a little extra control over your PC power settings.By default, Windows uses a power plan to save try and save power. You get to decide whether Caffeine works from your system tray, or a taskbar button, and there's even an option to prevent sleep, but allow the screensaver to start.Ĭonveniently, all this comes packaged in a single tiny executable (a mere 40KB) which, the author claims, runs on anything from Windows XP upwards. You can choose whether it's active on launch, or how long it will be active. There are options to choose which keypress is simulated, for instance, and how often it's repeated. The program provides several command line switches to control how it works. It will then keep your system awake for that time, convenient if you're not working at the keyboard but need it to remain active (you're giving a presentation, perhaps), before returning to normal. Right-click and you're able to turn the program on for only an hour, for example.

Just launch the program and it simulates a keypress every 59 seconds, so your machine thinks you're still working at the keyboard, and won't shut down.Ĭaffeine adds an icon to the system tray where you can control how it works. Caffeine is a portable free tool which can help to prevent your screensaver activating, or your PC going to sleep.

Caffeine software free download