Program that displays when windows is blocked from idling

blackjackel · May 15, 2014

I was wondering if there was a program that displays when windows is unable to idle, for example, the icon can turn red when windows is unable to idle...

I just hate when i come home to see that my computer hasn's idled because some program was stopping it from going idle. I wish something would display at all times (in the taskbar) that the computer won't idle. That way I can fix it before i lock my screen and walk away from my PC.

c627627 · May 15, 2014

What do you mean idle, like go to sleep?

Are you trying to save energy?

blackjackel · May 16, 2014

Yes either sleep or hibernate.

There are a plethora of softwares and things that would keep a computer from sleeping or hibernating, and it would be nice to know if the computer can't sleep or hibernate, would save tons of energy globally....

Think of how many people come back to their computers the day or morning after to see that it's been on because they left some program open...

c627627 · May 16, 2014

Creating a custom Desktop shortcut would enable you to manually force it, but I understand what you are saying, you want this to happen automatically after X minutes of inactivity.

When this is done under power settings, power profile, whatever it's called, you are saying that something interrupts it?

I hope other people can join this thread but it sounds to me like a place to start is to see what programs are running at startup that are so active?

msconfig or http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/what_run_in_startup.html

EarthDog · May 16, 2014

As I read it, he is looking for some kind of desktop notification that will tell him that his PC can't idle for XXXX reason.

Silver_Pharaoh · May 16, 2014

EarthDog said:
As I read it, he is looking for some kind of desktop notification that will tell him that his PC can't idle for XXXX reason.

But how can we get that to happen...

I thought I read somewhere about certain programs that communicate with Windows telling it that it can't hibernate because a program was running.
IIRC these programs were certified for Windows 7. :shrug:

I've had Windows sleep on me even when I had older programs running.

c627627 · May 16, 2014

As evidenced here:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...ow-to-identify-the-deviceapp-preventing-sleep

This is a major major problem.

Some people disable defragmenting and got it to work, some people disabled Mouse and Keyboard sharing and got it to work, there is a million things that could be causing it and there is talk of commands to enter but no talk of a program that would say which process prevented Windows from going to sleep. That would be a real solution, having a program that would log this info.

EarthDog · May 16, 2014

Since SSDs, I have never touched sleep or hibernate. I boot to an active desktop in less than 15 seconds including POST...

So, as a work around, assuming you have an SSD with your OS on it. Power off.

ATMINSIDE · May 16, 2014

EarthDog said:
Since SSDs, I have never touched sleep or hibernate. I boot to an active desktop in less than 15 seconds including POST...

So, as a work around, assuming you have an SSD with your OS on it. Power off.

This +1.

I saved 15% or more on my power bill by switching my PC off.

End bad Geico joke

c627627 · May 16, 2014

Yeah, I never messed with the buggy hibernate/sleep feature on any Windows OS I ever used. However, I could see how someone would never know how long they would be away from their station and therefore would have great use for this feature automatically kicking in.

Original poster, maybe start a thread over at social.technet.microsoft.com and ask why there is no way to log what prevents the computer from going to sleep.

I mean it sounds straight forward, you're simply trying to find out the list of activities that prevent the sleep feature from kicking in...

EarthDog · May 16, 2014

Not sure he is looking for an auto shutdown, just something to tell him what it is so he can do it... at least, that is what I read.... but certainly a script or shortcut could help as well.

ChanceCoats123 · May 16, 2014

Is it only a Windows 8 issue? I've never had issues before with my main desktop or laptop not going to sleep after a certain time. I have my desktop set in the power options to go to sleep after like an hour of inactivity and it will do so even with applications open. Same thing with my laptop, but after a half hour of inactivity to save battery life.

RJARRRPCGP · May 16, 2014

blackjackel said:
I was wondering if there was a program that displays when windows is unable to idle, for example, the icon can turn red when windows is unable to idle...

I just hate when i come home to see that my computer hasn's idled because some program was stopping it from going idle. I wish something would display at all times (in the taskbar) that the computer won't idle. That way I can fix it before i lock my screen and walk away from my PC.

I had vice-versa with XP, IIRC, still goes to screen saver when running ePSXe or the like!

blackjackel · May 19, 2014

Yeah, SSD's boot pretty quick, but theoretically wouldn't it be EVEN FASTER to hibernate memory into ram then shut down? Wouldn't it cut boot time from say, 15 seconds down to 3? I assume hibernation will be faster than booting in any situation.

Also, I'm still on a 8 year old computer with the oldschool bios that takes a good 5 or 10 seconds from the boot anyways, so even on a current SSD I'd be doing a long boot time anyways.

There are TONS of programs that will prevent windows from shutting down or hibernating, it would just be nice to know when windows can't hibernate.

Maybe there are some good programmers on this forum?

c627627 · May 20, 2014

Try making a new thread in places like this: http://social.technet.microsoft.com...ow-to-identify-the-deviceapp-preventing-sleep

Try elsewhere but come back and update your thread here if you find a way to have a log displayed of which program prevented Windows from hibernating.

RJARRRPCGP · May 21, 2014

blackjackel said:
Also, I'm still on a 8 year old computer with the oldschool bios that takes a good 5 or 10 seconds from the boot anyways, so even on a current SSD I'd be doing a long boot time anyways.

Yep, it's been a while, actually 6 years old now, with the board in your sig.

Twiggz · May 21, 2014

Well I have run into this very problem suddenly from my Main-PC. Only thing I have really changed was sharing some folders. So I went into advanced power settings and there is an option to stop the computer from sleeping if you are sharing folders.

I switched this to allow the computer to sleep when sharing folders. It still didn't sleep, but I didn't restart it either.

I get what ED was saying about turning it off, but you know what? I don't wanna just turn my PC off to solve a problem. I want it to sleep so I don't have to do anything at all. It should sleep! I don't know why I don't like it powered down, but I just don't.

I'm gonna try to restart the system and see if it will sleep that way after making the changes.

Edit: I reread this and it sounds pushy for some reason, lol, wasn't meant to.

Twiggz · May 22, 2014

Worked.

blackjackel · Jun 11, 2014

Or even how about make windows IGNORE sleep blockers.

Today I ran "MCE standby tool" which is a tool that displays if your computer is being blocked from idling, the problem is you have to launch the program and go to one of the tabs to see... anyways I found programs were preventing the computer from going to sleep.

So I hit sleep manually from start -> Sleep, computer immediately goes to sleep.

So the computer CAN ignore things that are preventing it from sleeping but it won't.

How about an option or a way to make windows ignore things that prevent it from sleeping?

c627627 · Jun 11, 2014

Contact any author of such programs directly or post in their official site's forums. Post back here what they said.

Program that displays when windows is blocked from idling

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