Don't go to sleep when close the lid and external monitor is used

Question

I'm coming from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/dont-go-to-sleep-when-close-the-lid-and-external/1784ad91-2ecd-4ad6-a349-12296b751cd7 which redirected me here. I am not the original poster in that link, but the OP doesn't seem to have re-asked the question here, which seems to have much better replies, so I'm doing it now. Currently, when I close my laptop while it's plugged to an external monitor (with display enabled on the external monitor, and generally disabled on the laptop), the laptop is put to sleep, whereas I just want to keep using it with the external monitor. It doesn't even need to change any monitor setup, so it should just let me go on with my work. And even if the laptop monitor was enabled, it could just rearrange the desktops if it needs to, then let me continue my work, exactly as if I simply plugged/unplugged a monitor. I think the OP explained the cases well, so I'll just repaste and arrange their text:

1. When the laptop is not attached to an external display, I want it to go to sleep when I close the lid, whether battery powered or plugged in.
2. When the laptop is attached to an external display, I want it to do nothing (i.e. not go to sleep) when I close the lid, whether battery powered or plugged in. Linux Ubuntu does it well for instance. But Windows forces me to rewake the laptop after that, and the procedure to do it is quite slow and sometimes unreliable (I hit keyboard keys, press mouse buttons... it takes time to rewake, and sometimes, it just doesn't even work). I figured that Windows doesn't have such a setting. So I'm doing a feature proposal:

• in the power options > system settings, in case When I close the lid, add a fourth choice besides Do nothing, Sleep and Shut down: Sleep if no external monitor is plugged
• You could have variants like "if no external monitor is plugged and active/inactive" to distinguish the case where the monitor is actually used or not. Personally I care about the case where it's already used, but I know some users want to only switch to external monitor when the laptop is closed
• I personally think "Sleep if no external monitor is plugged" should be the new default, just like Linux Ubuntu. That said, I do recognize the use case of just "Sleep". There was a time where I would close my laptop to put it to sleep, and was annoyed because the monitor kept it awake. So keeping "Sleep" as default is fine, but we'll need to remember to post the new solution on pages like https://superuser.com/questions/1126633/automate-so-that-if-and-only-if-external-monitor-is-attached-closing-laptop-lid when the feature has been added (and for the link at the top, sorry, the thread was locked, you'll have to unlock it to post the new solution) P.S.: sorry for the vaguely related tag "Windows 10 Hardware Performance". But I am required to select at least 1 tag and there is no list of tags given as hint, so I have to type words and wait for auto-completion until I find something roughly matching. Maybe you could improve this by showing a list of tags or replace tags with big categories that cover everything, + an Other category so you're sure it always works. So Category could be mandatory, but Tags optional.

Answer 1

Hello there, By default, Windows puts your laptop to sleep when you close the lid. This means that even if you don't want to use your laptop screen as a secondary monitor, you still have to leave your laptop open to keep your computer awake. Power Options Control Panel entry, select Choose what closing the lid does. You'll see options for the power and sleep buttons. Under When I close the lid, change the dropdown box for Plugged in to Do nothing. Hope this resolves your Query !! --If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--

Answer 2

I have this same issue with an external monitor connected to the GPU. I have set the power setting so that it never goes to sleep, I have also set the setting that closing the lid will do nothing. Yet, the laptop will go into Hibernate (I guess) if I am not actively using it for a little while.