We make our PC sleep when we have to leave it for some time and we don’t want to shut it down. Shutting down a PC first requires you to save all your running work, also rebooting the PC and opening all the programs again could be a little time taking and annoying.
When we make our PC Sleep instead of shutting it down, we can pick up from where we left off just with a simple touch to our keyboard or mouse. It preserves our session and we don’t need to worry about saving our open documents or programs. When we touch our keyboard or mouse, all our documents and programs are in the same place.
The keyboard and mouse on our PC are by default set to wake up the computer from sleep mode but not everyone wants this. Imagine you have left your PC in sleep mode and someone moves the USB mouse or keyboard by mistake or intentionally, the computer will wake up and they can see and access all your documents. Also, these USB keyboards and mice are very sensitive normally and even a slight vibration can move them and wake up your computer.
How to Block or Allow Keyboard or Mouse to wake Computer
You can easily disable any USB device and block it from waking your Windows computer. Let’s see how to Block or Allow Keyboard or Mouse to wake the Windows 11/10 computer. You have three options:
- Via Device Manager
- Via Control Panel
- Via CMD.
1] Block or Allow Mouse to wake Computer via Device Manager
To adjust these settings for your mouse from Device Manager:
- Press Win+X on your keyboard and select Device Manager.
- Now go to Mice and other pointing devices and double click.
- Click on Properties and go to Power Management.
- Uncheck the box saying, Allow this device to wake the computer.
This will disable your USB mouse to wake up your PC from sleep. You can anytime change the settings and allow it again if you want.
Block or Allow Keyboard to wake Computer via Device Manager
Again you do this using the Device Manager, Control Panel OR CMD.
- Press Win+X and select Device Manager.
- Go to the Keyboards and double click.
- Select your USB keyboard and right-click.
- Click on Properties and go to the Power Management tab.
- Uncheck the box saying, Allow this device to wake the computer.
Read: How to prevent Computer from waking up from Sleep unexpectedly
2] Block or Allow Mouse to wake Computer via Control Panel
If you want to do it via Control Panel:
- Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box and type Control Panel.
- Click on Mouse and then go to the Hardware tab.
- Select your USB mouse here and click on Properties.
Click on Change Settings and then go to Power Management.
Uncheck the box saying, Allow this device to wake the computer.
Read: Computer automatically waking up from Sleep
3] Block or Allow Keyboard or Mouse to wake Computer via Command Prompt
- On the Start search, type CMD.
- Select Run as administrator.
- Enter the command powercfg -devicequery wake_armed and press Enter
- This will show you the list of all devices that are allowed to wake up your PC from sleep.
- Now type powercfg -devicedisablewake <devicename> and hit Enter.
- Make sure that you put in the exact name of the device as shown in the CMD.
- Restart the PC.
You have to follow the same steps mentioned above for Mouse or Keyboard. Just use the correct device name.
Read: Why did my Windows PC wake up automatically?
Should I wake my computer with a keyboard or mouse Windows 11/10?
It’s absolutely your choice and won’t make any difference whatever device you choose to wake your computer. It is very easy and quick to wake a computer using a keyboard or a mouse. You simply need to press any key or just touch your mouse to do that.
Read: Should you Sleep, Hibernate or Shutdown Windows PC at night?
How do I turn my keyboard on to wake my computer?
Go to the Device Manager and open the Keyboard tab. Select the USB keyboard and right-click. Go to properties and then to the Power Management tab. Check the box saying, Allow this device to wake the computer, and you are done.
