How to keep your computer awake — and why that isn’t the same as staying active

There are four ways to stop a computer going to sleep: change the power settings, run a keep-awake app, plug in a hardware jiggler, or open a keep-awake website. All four work. But if the reason you’re here is a status dot that keeps going yellow, none of them will fix it — and that’s worth knowing before you install anything.

Method 1: built-in power settings (no software required)

Every operating system already has the switch you need. This is the right starting point because it’s free, permanent, and doesn’t trip corporate software-install policies.

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Open Settings → System → Power & battery → Screen and sleep. You’ll see up to four dropdowns — screen-off and sleep, each with a battery and a plugged-in variant. Set the ones you care about to Never. Laptops only show the battery options; desktops only show the plugged-in ones.

If you prefer the command line, one line does it on AC power:

powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0 — and powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0 for the display.

Windows Pro editions also have Presentation mode (Windows Mobility Center, or presentationsettings from Run), which suppresses sleep, screensavers and notifications in one toggle. It’s designed for demos but works fine as a temporary keep-awake switch.

macOS

Open System Settings → Lock Screen and set “Turn display off on power adapter when inactive” to Never. Then open Displays → Advanced and enable Prevent automatic sleeping on power adapter when the display is off. Both are needed: the first stops the screen going dark, the second stops the machine itself suspending.

macOS also ships a built-in terminal command, no download required:

caffeinate -d keeps the display awake until you press Ctrl+C. caffeinate -t 3600 does it for exactly one hour and then releases. caffeinate -i prevents idle system sleep while leaving the display free to turn off.

The lid-close exception

On a laptop, none of the above survives closing the lid. Windows handles this separately under Control Panel → Power Options → Choose what closing the lid does, where you can set it to Do nothing. macOS has no equivalent setting — a closed lid always sleeps a MacBook unless an external display, keyboard and power are all connected (clamshell mode). If you need a Mac awake with the lid shut and nothing plugged in, you need third-party software.

Method 2: keep-awake software

Software tools are better than power-setting changes when you want the machine awake sometimes — during a long render, a download, a presentation — without leaving sleep permanently disabled.

PowerToys Awake (Windows)

Microsoft’s own utility, part of the free PowerToys suite. It sits in the system tray with three modes: keep awake indefinitely, keep awake for a set interval, or off. Because it’s first-party Microsoft software, it usually clears IT allowlists that block third-party jigglers. We’ve written up what PowerToys Awake does and doesn’t do for Slack separately — short version, it keeps the machine on and your Slack dot still goes yellow.

Amphetamine and caffeinate (macOS)

Amphetamine is the long-standing free Mac App Store option, with triggers (keep awake while a specific app is running, while a drive is mounted, while on a particular Wi-Fi network) that go well beyond a simple timer. The older Caffeine app does the same thing more simply. Both are wrappers around the same OS assertion that caffeinate uses from the terminal — if you’re comfortable with a shell, you don’t need the app. Worth knowing: Caffeine does not keep Slack active, despite how often it’s recommended for exactly that.

Mouse jiggler software

A different approach: instead of asking the OS to stay awake, jiggler software fakes cursor movement every few seconds. That’s blunter, but it has one advantage the assertion-based tools don’t — because it generates genuine input events, it also resets application-level idle timers, not just the system one. See our roundup of mouse jiggler software for the current options, and the DIY approaches if you’d rather not install anything.

Keep-awake websites

Sites like nosleep.page and keepscreenon.com use the browser’s Screen Wake Lock API to hold the display on while the tab is open. Their appeal is obvious: zero install, works on a machine where you have no admin rights. The limits are equally real — the lock is released when you minimise or switch away from the tab in most browsers, it only prevents display sleep rather than full system suspend, and a corporate lock-screen policy overrides it entirely.

Method 3: hardware mouse jigglers

A USB dongle that physically moves the cursor a pixel or two every few seconds, or a small motorised pad you rest a real mouse on. To the computer it is indistinguishable from a human hand, because as far as the USB stack is concerned it is a mouse.

The case for hardware over software is narrow but genuine: it needs no drivers, no admin rights, and no installed process for an endpoint-monitoring agent to see. On a tightly managed corporate laptop where you can’t install anything, it may be the only option that works. The case against is equally simple — it’s a physical object you have to carry, it costs money, and it only helps while the machine is on and unlocked. Whether jigglers actually work for Slack is a more nuanced question than most listings suggest.

Why an awake computer still shows as “Away”

This is the part that sends most people down a second round of searching, so it’s worth being precise about it.

Operating-system sleep and application presence are two unrelated systems. Your power settings govern whether the hardware suspends. Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and the rest each run their own independent idle timer, and what they measure is input directed at their own window — not CPU activity, not whether the display is on, not whether the machine is technically awake.

The practical consequence: Slack marks you Away after 30 minutes with no keyboard or mouse activity inside Slack. That happens on a desktop that has never slept in its life, with the monitor on and a video playing. PowerToys Awake, caffeinate, and every keep-awake website have exactly zero effect on it, because none of them generate input — they only assert to the OS that it should not suspend.

So the methods split cleanly:

• Power settings, PowerToys Awake, caffeinate, Amphetamine, keep-awake websites: keep the computer awake. Your Slack dot still goes yellow.
• Mouse jigglers (hardware or software): generate real input, so they keep both the computer awake and the app timers reset — but only while the machine is on and unlocked.
• Cloud presence tools: hold the presence connection from a server, so the dot stays green with the laptop shut. They don’t keep your computer awake at all, because they don’t need to.

Which method should you actually use?

• A download or render needs to finish overnight → built-in power settings, or PowerToys Awake / caffeinate for a one-off. Nothing else required.
• You’re presenting and don’t want the screensaver → Windows Presentation mode, or a keep-awake website if you can’t change settings.
• You can’t install software on a work machine → a keep-awake website first (free, instant), a hardware jiggler if that isn’t enough.
• You want your Slack or Teams status to stay green while you’re at your desk → a jiggler, since only input-generating methods reset the app’s idle timer.
• You want the status green when you’re not at the machine at all → a cloud presence tool. This is the only category that works with the laptop closed, and it’s the reason keeping Slack active when your computer sleeps is a different problem from keeping the computer awake.

FAQ

How do I keep my computer active while away?
Change your power plan so the machine never sleeps (Windows: Settings → System → Power & battery → Screen and sleep → set Sleep to Never; Mac: System Settings → Lock Screen → Turn display off when inactive → Never). If you also need the screen to stay unlocked, use a keep-awake utility such as PowerToys Awake on Windows or Amphetamine on macOS, which override sleep temporarily without permanently rewriting your power plan.

How do I make my computer screen stay on?
On Windows, go to Settings → System → Power & battery → Screen and sleep and set "Turn my screen off after" to Never for both battery and plugged in. On macOS, open System Settings → Lock Screen and set "Turn display off on power adapter when inactive" to Never. Note that screen timeout and system sleep are two separate settings — you usually need to change both.

How do I set my computer to stay awake longer?
Extend the sleep timer rather than disabling it. On Windows: Settings → System → Power & battery → Screen and sleep, then pick a longer interval (or run powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0 in a terminal to disable sleep on AC power). On macOS: System Settings → Lock Screen, or run caffeinate -t 3600 in Terminal to stay awake for exactly one hour.

Is there a website that keeps your computer awake?
Yes. Keep-awake websites such as nosleep.page and keepscreenon.com use the browser's Screen Wake Lock API to stop the display sleeping while the tab is open and focused. They require no install, which makes them popular on locked-down work machines. The limits: the tab has to stay open, most browsers release the lock when you minimise or background it, and it only prevents display sleep — it does not stop a lid close or a corporate lock-screen policy.

How do I make my computer screen stay on when I'm not active?
Either change the power settings so there is no inactivity timeout at all, or run a keep-awake tool that simulates activity. Tools like PowerToys Awake and Amphetamine hold the system awake via an OS-level assertion (cleaner), while mouse jigglers fake cursor movement (blunter, but it also resets application-level idle timers, which the assertion approach does not).

Does keeping my computer awake keep me active on Slack or Teams?
No, and this is the single most common misunderstanding. Slack and Teams don't watch whether your computer is awake — they watch for input inside their own window. Slack flips you to Away after 30 minutes with no keyboard or mouse activity in Slack, even on a machine that is fully awake with the screen on. PowerToys Awake, caffeinate and keep-awake websites all keep the hardware running but leave you Away. Only something that generates real input (a jiggler) or holds the presence connection from outside your machine (a cloud presence tool) keeps the dot green.

Is it safe to leave my computer awake all the time?
For a desktop, yes — modern hardware is designed for it. For a laptop, the trade-offs are heat, fan noise and battery wear if you disable sleep while unplugged, so set "never sleep" on AC power only. The bigger risk is security: a machine that never sleeps and never locks is an unlocked machine. Keep the lock-screen timeout on even if you disable sleep.