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How to Get Your Windows 8 PC to Automatically Wake from Sleep Whenever You Want

Mar 22, 2013 07:15 PM

Power options menu displaying Sleep, Hibernate, Shut down, and Restart options.

I rarely ever turn my desktop off. For starters, it takes a few minutes to boot up, which I hate, and secondly, putting the computer to sleep is perfectly adequate. You really only need to completely shut down your computer every once in a while.

So, in another effort to save time, I wanted to make my desktop automatically wake up from sleep mode.

It's like an alarm clock for my computer. If I have to wake up at 8 o'clock to get some work done, then my computer should be ready to go at the same time. You can even make your computer wake up and play a video for you.

This is all made possible by using the Task Scheduler. I'll be showing you how to set this up on Windows 8, but it should work for Windows 7 as well.

From the Start Screen, search for "schedule tasks" and the program will pop up under the settings tab.

Settings menu with a search bar on a dark blue background.

Open the program up. It should look like this.

Task Scheduler interface showing active tasks and their details.

Under the Actions menu on the right, you will see Create Basic Task. Click on it.

How to Get Your Windows 8 PC to Automatically Wake from Sleep Whenever You Want

It will then ask for a name for your task and a basic description. This is really just for you, so you can put in anything you want, as long as it lets you know what the task is. Once you're finished, click Next.

In this window you will need to choose when and how often you want your task to run. For the purposes of my task, I chose Daily. I then set the set the start time at 8:00 AM, recurring every day.

Task Trigger Options in Task Scheduler Interface

Create a basic daily task in a task management wizard.

Once you have set the task's schedule, you will need to designate a program for your computer to run.

Create Basic Task Wizard interface with options for task trigger and action selection.

This is how your computer will wake itself up. Since I will most likely use the internet first thing, I set my computer to run Google Chrome at my 8:00 AM scheduled time. You can browse the system to find whatever program you want your computer to run.

Create Basic Task Wizard in Windows showing options to start a program.

Once you've chosen a program, click Next and you will arrive at this window.

Creating a new scheduled task in Windows with specified trigger and action.

All you need to do here is check the box that says Open the Properties dialog... Hit Finish and it will take you to the Properties dialog, which looks like this.

Computer task scheduling settings with highlighted option to allow the computer to run this task.

Go to the Conditions tab and check the box to Wake the computer to run this task. Finally, go to the General tab and check the box to Run with highest privileges.

Checkbox option for "Run with highest privileges" in Windows User Account Control settings.

Image Credit wonderhowto.com

Click OK, and everything should be good to go. Go to sleep, and wake up to the sound of your computer getting to work.

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