Make Windows 7 go to sleep after x seconds

Question

When I start a long-processing job just before going to sleep myself, I often run

shutdown -s -t 3600

so that the computer automatically shutdowns after 3600 seconds.

How to do the same to ask the computer to go to sleep after x seconds?

I tried

shutdown -h -t 60

but 1) it didn't even work and anyway 2) this would make computer go to hibernation, which I don't want (I prefer sleep mode).

Note: this answer doesn't solve the problem because it doesn't allow to specify a time before going to sleep.

Solution 1

How do I make Windows 7 go to sleep after x seconds?

Use the following batch file, and run as an Adminstrator

@echo off
rem disable hibernate
powercfg -hibernate off
rem wait x seconds, eg 1 hour
timeout 3600 /nobreak
rem sleep
%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

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Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line
• A categorized list of Windows CMD commands
• powercfg - Control power settings, configure Hibernate/Standby modes.
• timeout - Delay execution for a few seconds or minutes, for use within a batch file.

Solution 2

A one-liner (based of DavidPostill's accepted answer):

timeout /T 3600 & rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

To be sure it works, you can try it like this:

timeout /t 10 & notepad

the Notepad should open after 10 seconds.

Important note: If you have git installed on your computer, its bin folder might be in the PATH, and doing timeout in the command line will run C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\timeout.exe instead of the default C:\Windows\System32\timeout.exe! In this case you have to include the full path of timeout, in order to use the Windows timeout tool.

Comments

[Basj]

thanks. even if it's not vital I was looking for a one line command (i like the simplicity of shutdown -s -t). Is there no?

[Basj]

Also is powercfg -hibernate off permanent (I thought so) or should it be done after every reboot ?

[DavidPostill]

@Basj I believe it is permanent (until you turn it on again), but it won't do any hard to turn it off if it is already off.

[qwertzguy]

Unfortunately, after 1 hour, it didn't do anything, just went back to the prompt. If I run the command without the timeout, it does put my computer to hibernate.

[Basj]

@qwertzguy Please try timeout /t 10 & notepad, what happens?

[qwertzguy]

it works, it opened notepad after 10 sec. Not sure why it didn't work with the 1 hour and sleep command.