What is the hotkey to put my Windows to sleep?

Question

My keyboard doesn't have power-related keys. I would like to enter the hybrid sleep using the keyboard and only with a minimum of keystrokes.

If there is none, how do I bind a hotkey to it?

Solution 1

Windows doesn't have a standard hotkey or keyboard shortcut for going to sleep - except the "sleep" button that you see on some keyboards.

Instead, you can use a program to trigger the sleep state, and you can assign a shortcut to launch this program:

1. Download Steve's Wizmo tool.
2. Create a shortcut to this program on your desktop.
3. Right-click the shortcut, and select Properties.
4. In the field Target, add the word standby. *)
5. Click in the field Shortcut key, then press the key combination you want to use. This is then displayed in the field. Note: Not all shortcuts work, e.g. Win+S gets translated to Ctrl-Alt-S instead.
6. Click OK and try out the shortcut!

*) See the Wizmo webpage for complete documentation. Wizmo can do lots more!

Solution 2

In English Windows (versions prior to Windows 10)

Windows , → , → , s will put the computer to sleep.

In English Windows 10

Win+X , U , S

If sleep is configured to be hybrid, then it will be a hybrid sleep.

Solution 3

Starting in Windows 8, and continuing in Windows 10 at least as of the Creators Update, the +x menu allows quick access to the "shut down or sign out menu." And it has sensible accelerators; "u" for the shut down menu, and then "s" for sleep.

You can sleep with the sequence +x, u, s.

Solution 4

You can use the free utility NirCmd as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Nircmd\nircmd.exe" standby

The rest you can find in torbengb's answer.

Solution 5

You can try this command instead (no external programs are required):

Rundll32.exe Powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Sleep

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Comments

[qroberts]

Glad to see there's more Steve Gibson fans here.

[mgronber]

+1, Relatively easy to remember and works always as it does not require changes to the system.

[Bogdan Stojanovic]

Unfortunately, if you have hibernation enabled, this will hibernate instead of sleep.

[Christian Conkle]

This pattern no longer works in Windows 10. It's now Win-↑-↑-Enter-↓-Enter, but it's not totally reliable; I've sometimes seen "sleep" not be an option, perhaps because of pending updates, causing this to reboot instead.

[krillgar]

@ChristianConkle At that point, they might as well have made it the Konami Code.

[GetFree]

You need the "standby" command to go to sleep. The "hibernate" command does what you think it does.

[Daniel B]

Windows 10 (including 1607!): Win+X → Up → Up → Right → Up → Up. (Last part may vary.)

[Luc]

Windows 10 English: Win+X -> U -> S (variant on @DanielB's idea, but with fewer up-up-ups). Edit: Oh, I see Christian Conkle already answered this same thing in another answer (not comment).

[Admin]

In your Windows is in French: Win+X, D, V