Here is a list of 5 free software to temporarily prevent PC from going to sleep. Most of these software are portable and helpful to prevent PC from sleep mode as well as hibernate mode. Apart from that, some software in this list have unique features also. You can set the custom time and date to activate anti-sleep mode, shut down PC, allow display to sleep but keep PC awake, and more.
Do note that if you manually try to put PC to sleep or Hibernate, then these software won’t stop you from doing that. These are helpful when you have schedule PC shut down or set timer to put PC in sleep mode.
Although you can easily customize sleep mode and display turn off time by accessing Power Options, but then you have to customize settings again and again. So, when you want to keep the default settings and want to prevent PC from sleep mode temporarily, then you can try any of these software.
Let’s start with the first software available here.
Sleep Preventer
Sleep Preventer is a portable software and is very helpful to prevent PC from going to sleep or hibernate. You can use its tiny interface to set the timer for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours and press Prevent Sleep button. After that, it will keep PC awake based on the time interval selected by you.
Here, you can’t set the custom time, but there is one really interesting feature. You can select option to “Allow display to sleep”. If this option is selected, then only display will turn off, but PC won’t go to sleep mode. Thus, you can save energy and let PC running so that you can quickly get access to your PC.
You can also read the full review.
Don’t Sleep
Don’t Sleep is one of the best software here to temporarily prevent PC from going to sleep. It is more powerful than Sleep Preventer software. Apart from preventing PC from going to sleep or hibernate mode, it also helps to prevent PC shut down. The best part is that you can also set custom date and time to activate this software. When the timer is running, all the options set by you will remain enabled. You also have the choice to enable or disable only sleep/hibernation, only shutdown, or all the options.
This software also comes with option to turn off monitor only and keep PC awake. Apart from that, you can use its interface to turn off PC, restart, log off, access System Information, User Accounts window, and more. So, you will have all the important options related to PC power options and system.
You may also check its detailed review here.
Caffeine
Caffeine is another small yet useful software to temporarily prevent PC from going to sleep. This software sits in the system tray silently and simulates a keypress once every 59 seconds automatically. In this way, it prevents PC from going to sleep.
You can’t choose time and date to prevent PC from going to sleep mode, but you can set active hours for this software. You can keep it active for 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, or 24 hours. Also, when you want to temporarily disable this software, just double-click its tray icon and it will be disabled.
This software also comes with some command line options. For example, you can set command to automatically exit application after specified time (in minutes), make it inactive after some time, don’t show its tray icon, etc. You can view the list of all commands on its homepage and use them.
Caffeinated
Caffeinated software has options similar to Caffeine software. It does its job to prevent PC from going to sleep very well. You can’t set custom time duration to prevent sleep mode, but yes you can select any of the available time intervals. These are: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 3 hours, and 5 hours.
Also, you can activate and disable this software anytime you want. Just double-click its tray icon and it will be disabled. Do the same to activate this software.
Insomnia
This is the simplest software in this entire list. Insomnia is a portable software that helps to prevent PC from going to sleep mode without messing with any type of options. Just run the software and it will open its small interface. Now anti sleep mode is activated.
You can minimize it to the system tray and it will keep working for you and prevent sleep mode. Whenever you want to use PC with default settings for sleep mode, you can close this software. This is all what you can do with this software. It doesn’t help you protect PC from shut down or hibernation. You also can’t use timer to use this software. However, it does its work quite well and prevents PC from sleep mode.
The Verdict:
All of these software are good to prevent PC from going to sleep mode. It’s a bit difficult to select the #1 from these software. However, for me, Sleep Preventer works fine and that’s why I placed it at #1 position. Don’t Sleep software is definitely a second good choice because of its features.
