When you leave your Windows computer idle, its screen turns off automatically after a specific time. Windows turns off the screen in order to save power. If a task is running on your laptop, it will remain active after the screen gets turned off. The screen turn-off timeout may be different for different users. If you want to increase or decrease the time to turn off your screen, you can do so via Windows 11/10 Settings. However, there are other ways too by which you can change the screen turn-off timeout. In this article, we will see how to change the screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11/10.
How to change the Screen Turn-off Timeout in Windows 11/10
In Windows 11/10, you can set a different time to turn off your screen for the following two cases:
- When your laptop is on battery power.
- When your laptop is plugged in or charging.
You can change the screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11/10 by using:
- Settings app
- The Control Panel
- Command Prompt
Let’s see all these methods in detail.
1] How to change screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11/10 by using the Settings app
The following steps will help you change the screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11 and Windows 10.
- Open Windows 11/10 Settings.
- Go to “System > Power & battery.” In Windows 10, you will find Power & sleep in place of Power & battery.
- Now, click on the drop-down menus under the Screen section to set a different screen turn-off time for the following two cases. In Windows 11, you have to expand the Screen and sleep tab to view the screen turn-off time settings.
- When your laptop is on battery power.
- When your laptop is plugged in or charging.
2] How to change screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11/10 via the Control Panel
This method has one advantage over the method we described above. You can create multiple custom power plans in the Control Panel and define different custom screen turn-off times. Name the custom power plans accordingly. Now, when you want to change the screen turn-off time, simply switch to that particular power plan in the Control Panel.
The following steps will guide you on how to change the screen turn-off time in Windows 11/10 using the Control Panel.
- Press the Win + R keys to open the Run command box.
- Type Control Panel and click OK. This will open the Control Panel.
- Now, go to “Hardware and Sound > Power Options.” Alternatively, you can also use the Control Panel search for the same. Type power in the Control Panel search bar and select Power Options.
- On the Power Options page, click on the Change plan settings link. Or click on the “Choose when to turn off the display” link on the left side.
- Now, click on the drop-down menus next to the Turn off the display option to change the screen turn-off time for the following two cases:
- When your laptop is on battery.
- When your laptop is charging or plugged in.
- Click Save Changes.
3] How to change screen turn-off timeout on Windows 11/10 by using the Command Prompt
You can also change the time to turn off your screen by using the Command Prompt. This method has an advantage over the two methods we described above. Suppose you want to set a custom time, say 7 minutes, 12 minutes, etc., to turn off your screen. You cannot do so by using the above two options because you will not find these custom times in the drop-down. The following instructions will help you change or set a custom time to turn off the screen of your laptop.
Click on the Windows Search and type cmd. After that, select the Command Prompt from the search results. This will open the Command Prompt.
Now, copy the following command and paste it into the Command Prompt. After that, hit Enter. The following command will change the time to turn off the screen for “When your laptop is on battery” mode. You can use the right-click of your mouse to paste the copied command in the Command Prompt.
powercfg -change -monitor-timeout-dc X
If you want to change the time or set a custom time for “When your laptop is plugged in or charging” mode, copy the following command and paste it into the Command Prompt. After that, press Enter.
powercfg -change -monitor-timeout-ac X
In the above commands, replace the letter X with time. The value that you type here is the time in minutes. For example, if you want to turn off your screen after 7 minutes, you should type 7 in place of X. If you want to turn off your screen after 1 hour, you have to type 60 in place of X.
After performing the above steps, when you open Windows 11/10 Settings or the Control Panel, you will see the custom screen turn-off time there.
TIP: You can set a custom sleep time by executing the following commands in the Command prompt.
On Battery
powercfg -change -standby-timeout-dc X
Plugged in
powercfg -change -standby-timeout-ac X
Replace X with the time (in minutes) after which you want your laptop to go into sleep mode.
Read: How to turn off Windows laptop screen with a click using ScreenOff.
How to make my screen not turn off in Windows 11?
If you do not want your screen to be turned off in Windows 11, follow the steps written below:
- Open Windows 11 Settings.
- Go to “System > Power & battery.”
- Click on the Screen and sleep tab to expand it.
- Click on the drop-down menus next to the following two options and select Never.
- On battery, turn off my screen after.
- When plugged in, turn off my screen after.
How do I get my screen to stay longer on Windows 11/10?
To make your screen stay longer on WIndows 11/10, open the Power & battery page in your Windows 11 Settings and select the maximum time in the drop-down menus next to the following two options:
- On battery, turn off my screen after.
- When plugged in, turn off my screen after.
In Windows 10, the Power & battery page is named as Power & sleep. If you want a custom time to turn off your screen, say 5 hours, 6 hours, etc., you have to execute a command in the Command Prompt. We have described this above in this article.
Hope this helps.
Read next: How to change Sleep settings on Windows 11/10.
