How to Wake from Sleep on Schedule in Windows 10

You can use the Windows Wake Timers feature to wake the computer from sleep mode automatically. Here’re the steps to wake from sleep on schedule in Windows 10.

Windows lets you choose the auto sleep timer so that the PC is not running necessarily when you are not actually using it. This is a very useful feature in a lot of situations. When the PC is in sleep mode, you can turn it on using the Power button or with your keyboard and mouse. However, from time to time the alternate might also be true where you want the computer to wake automatically on schedule to do some task. For example, maybe you want to download a file at a specific time, start a full system scan, run a specific script, etc.

To automatically wake the PC from sleep mode in Windows 10, you have to use the Wake Timers functionality. Essentially, a wake timer allows any program or script to wake the computer from sleep mode to do an action.

In this quick and simple post, let me show the steps to configure a wake timer to automatically turn on the computer on schedule from sleep mode.

How to Automatically Wake from Sleep Mode on Schedule in Windows

To wake from sleep on schedule, there are two major steps. First, you need to enable the Wake Timer in Windows 10. Next, create a scheduled task that runs a simple command. The purpose of the scheduled task is just to send a wake timer single. It has no other functionality. Here’re the exact steps to follow.

1. Open Windows 10 Settings. You can do that by pressing the “Win + I” shortcut.
2. Go to the “System → Power & Sleep” page.
3. Click on the “Additional power settings” link under “Related settings“.
   
4. Now, click on the “Change plan settings” next to the currently active plan.
   
5. Click on the “Change advanced power settings” link.
   
6. Expand the “Sleep” option.
7. Expand the “Allow wake timers” option.
8. Select “Enabled” from the dropdown menu.
9. Click the “Apply” and “Ok” buttons.
   
10. Now, open the Start menu.
11. Search and open “Task Scheduler“.
12. After opening the task scheduler application, click on the “Create basic task” option.
    
13. Name the task and click “Next“.
    
14. Select a schedule to start the task. In my case, I’m choosing to start the task only one time. If you want to repeat the task, select Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
    
15. Configure the task schedule. Depending on what option you choose earlier, the options on this screen will be different. Click “Next” after configuring.
    
16. Select the “Start a program” option.
    
17. Type “cmd.exe” in the “Program/script” field.
18. Type ‘ /c “exit” ‘ in the “Arguments” field. Click “Next“.
    
19. Review the scheduled task and click “Finish“.
    
20. Close the task scheduler.

That is all. From now own, the task will execute according to the schedule. Since the system is configured to allow wake timers, the scheduled task will wake the computer from sleep to execute the task. As I said before, the actual command does nothing. It just opens the Command Prompt window and closes it immediately. If you want to, you can replace the above command with a custom command/script too.

I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.