How to Change Sleep Button Action in Windows 11

monitor gec
monitor gec

This article describes steps one can take to change their computer’s sleep button action settings in Windows 11.

These days you won’t see a dedicated sleep button on many PCs. It used to be a thing. If your PC does have a sleep button, you can specify what happens when you press it.

One can select different actions to specify what to do when the sleep button is pressed. These include doing nothing, sleeping, hibernating, or turning off the computer’s display.

Changing how the sleep button works in Windows 11 requires you to log in as an administrator and open the Control Panel app in Windows 11.

Here are the different options one can specify what to do when the sleep button is pressed on one’s PC:

Change the sleep button action via Control Panel

As mentioned above, the sleep button action settings specify the action to take when the system sleep button is pressed.

Below is how to configure that.

First, launch the Control Panel app in Windows 11.

When the Control Panel app opens, go to Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options.

Control Panel-> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options

Click the “Choose what the power button does” link from the Power Options pane in the Control Panel.

windows choose what the power button does link control panel
windows choose what the power button does, links the control panel

On the Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> System Settings pane, choose the options from the drop-down menu:

windows when i press the sleep button options new image
windows when I press the sleep button options new image

Change the sleep button action via Advanced Power Options

Alternatively, users can change the sleep button action via the Advanced Power Options window.

You can do that by going to the Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options. Select the active power plan under the preferred plans, and click the Change plan settings link.

windows 11 change power plan settings link
windows 11 change power plan settings link

Next, click Change advanced power settings link as highlighted below.

windows 11 change advanced power settings control panel
Windows 11 changes advanced power settings control panel

Expand the Power buttons, lid, and Sleep button action settings as highlighted below. Under the Sleep button action, choose what action to take when the sleep button is pressed:

  • On battery:
    • Do nothing
    • Sleep
    • Hibernate
    • Turn off the display
  • Plugged in:
    • Do nothing
    • Sleep
    • Hibernate
    • Turn off the display
windows sleep button action advanced power option window
windows sleep button action advanced power option window

Make your selection and click OK to save your settings.

That should do it!

Conclusion:

This post showed you how to change the sleep button action settings in Windows 11. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.

Posted by
Richard W

I love computers; maybe way too much. What I learned I try to share at geekrewind.com.

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