Windows-Idle-Control-Keeper

Intro:

[Saul Goodman voice] Can't get reliable sleep? Feeling like it's out of your control? Well fret not, just run this script and you can start counting those sheep!

WICK - Windows Idle Control Keeper

This non-admin script detects Idle activity with your specific thresholds and conditions, and triggers / prevents Windows sleep, hibernate, display, lock, screen saver, on Your terms. Detects activity on CPU, (non-virtual) Network (both internet and LAN), Storage, input, and peak Sound value; counting idle-breaking event frequency and amplitude per time periods, to determine if an Idle timer should continue or be broken. It's Windows Power Plan aware, including display off and screensaver schedule, and maintains windows screen locking.

I don't usually post my system scripts but it annoyed me that for such a wide need, there was nothing out there but forum threads of people using obscure and partial tools like DontSleep!.exe from 2014

Features, Dependencies, Log Example, Notes, Run & Parameters:

Features:

• Does not require administrator permission.
• Works even if windows is locked.
• Also works as a system task: if you start it at system start via task scheduler + run whether the user is logged in or not. But then you must also add a user task on log in so it starts to monitor your actual power plan: read the description of the MutualExclusionFlagFile parameter. (And if for some reason you Log Off but keep the computer on, you need to manually start a new system task.)
• Shows warning / abort window for AbortWindowCountdownSeconds before triggering a sleep or hibernate (if in an interactive session (not locked or logged out)).
• Dynamically reads (every minute (configurable)) from your currently active windows power plan (plugged in or battery) to check sleep and hibernate times (also display and screensaver) (can also ignore them and use manual times).
• Also can read from Settings_File_Windows_Idle_Control_Keeper_txt. So you can pause/resume, or tweak settings, while the script is running (every FileSettingsPollIntervalMinutes) (there's a flag: -IgnoreTheSettingsFile).
• Determines idle by accumulating sustained activity event samples, of configurable frequency & amplitude, over certain timeframes (and uses delta time), based on: if there's CPU, Network, sorage (without waking sleeping hard disks), audio spikes, and input activity.
• Can prevent windows from sleeping/hibernate until this script decides it's time, or work alongside it.
• Can set a sleep or hibernate time for longer than 5h (the max that Windows power plan allows for some gormless reason).
• Allows a blacklist for logical drives e.g. "L", "A", "N" - you may have drives that have activity you consider passive and you're okay sleeping on. But also keep in mind the NetworkThresholdKBps setting.
• Can also prevent sleep or hibernate while a file or folder exists (e.g. "D:\Bak" or "D:\Bak\myLongSlowBackup.tmp"), by pasting its path in the DontSleepWhileThisFileExistsPath. If this file exists in the moment that this script would trigger a sleep or hibernate, it won't sleep/hibernate. (File checked every FileSettingsPollIntervalMinutes) (The script otherwise works as normal e.g. turn display off (if set to)) The path should be accessible by all users.
• Logs what's going on, to Windows' Event Viewer - Application Log (0. on start ('69' '1111'), 1. idle_on ('69' '420') (after 1m of idle), 2. idle_off ('69' '421'), 3. on exit ('69' '1000')) (the actual message is in the 'Details' tab of the event (non-admin limitation)). Also logs to file at LogPath, so you know at what time of day Idle state was broken, by what, and after how much idle time. (or if there were errors) (log cleans itself up to stay less than LogMaxSizeMB)
• It maintains windows screen locking (also can lock on demand), and display off and screensaver schedule (can be triggered on demand).

Dependencies:

• python (and the checkIfAudioIsPlaying.py script for custom volume peak thresholds. It requires pip install pycaw.)
• virtually any .net (C# capability) installed on the system (for SetThreadExecutionState)
• powershell 5.1 (the latest is powershell 7+)
• You need to check that the paths are correct / to your liking. Set the corresponding "*Path" parameters.
• No admin requirements

Log Example:

[2026-04-30 00:11:58] [INFO] ~*------- W.I.C.K. started. -------
[2026-04-30 00:11:58] [INFO] Log path: C:\Commands_And_Logs\Windows_Idle_Control_Keeper.log
[2026-04-30 00:11:58] [INFO] Settings path: C:\Commands_And_Logs\[Settings_File]_Windows_Idle_Control_Keeper.txt
[2026-04-30 00:11:58] [INFO] You set to use windows power plan's sleep and hiberante values (if sleep/hibernate are enabled on the system): 30 min and 60 min. (We check to update this value every: SettingsPollIntervalMinutes: 1 min.)
[2026-04-30 00:11:58] [INFO] It's been 171368.983134705 minute(s) since the last update, which means we
were sleeping or somehow lagging a lot, Resetting idle counter.
[2026-04-30 00:13:38] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 4/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 1.97975]][deltaTime: 1.81188]
[2026-04-30 00:15:49] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 5/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 131.58716][deltaTime: 1.79505]
[2026-04-30 00:18:03] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 4/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 134.36724][deltaTime: 1.80448]
[2026-04-30 00:20:18] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Sustained audio playing for 5 samples. Resetting idle counter. [idleSeconds: 135.39535][deltaTime: 1.83311]
[2026-04-30 00:22:27] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 5/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 129.7384][deltaTime: 1.80238]
[2026-04-30 00:24:35] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 3/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 128.48579][deltaTime: 1.81196]
[2026-04-30 00:26:53] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 6/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 138.36093][deltaTime: 1.80977]
[2026-04-30 00:29:07] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 4/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 134.53758][deltaTime: 1.80943]
[2026-04-30 00:31:16] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Sustained audio playing for 5 samples. Resetting idle counter. [idleSeconds: 129.49264][deltaTime: 1.82225]
[2026-04-30 00:33:22] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Disk: 4/6 samples > 1250 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 126.15309][deltaTime: 1.80812]
[2026-04-30 00:35:41] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 5/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 138.73624][deltaTime: 1.81147]
[2026-04-30 00:38:00] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 3/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 139.63062][deltaTime: 1.80641]
[2026-04-30 00:42:30] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 5/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 270.65825][deltaTime: 1.81357]
[2026-04-30 00:44:38] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Mouse/touch/keyboard activity registered 1 seconds ago. Resetting idle counter. [idleSeconds: 128.70253][deltaTime: 1.81204]
[2026-04-30 00:46:52] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 4/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 134.8361][deltaTime: 1.80762]
[2026-04-30 00:49:18] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 4/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 146.67395][deltaTime: 1.81792]
[2026-04-30 00:51:39] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 6/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 141.39137][deltaTime: 1.81315]
[2026-04-30 00:53:57] [INFO][IDLE BREAKER] Network: 6/6 samples > 850 KBps (>= 3 required) for 6 sec. [idleSeconds: 138.73501][deltaTime: 1.82582]
[2026-04-30 00:53:59] [INFO] CPU: 1 % | Disk: 8279 KBps | Net: 1201 KBps | Input: 91 s ago | Idle: 0.0 min | (T Sleep: 30 min | T Hibernate: 60 min | T Display: 20.0 min | T ScreenSaver: 0.0 min | T Demand Win Lock: 15.0 min). [idleSeconds: 2.52849][deltaTime: 1.83315]

Notes:

Note:

Tested on Windows 11 LTSC, laptop and PC.

Note:

This script cannot and will never: ask for administrator privileges, listen to your sounds, key presses, taps and clicks, connect to the internet or network. It only asks for, reads, and logs, when an event of a certain category happened, does not know what data it had.

Note:

I built-in a 60 second failsafe, before which this script won't do anything. So you can't screw yourself over: e.g. set a 1s sleep timeout, or force lock after 1s idle etc. So you have 1 minute to fix it after wake, or even on startup, even if you set it to start at system start via task scheduler.

Note:

Because it doesn't use admin rights, while PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep is $true, this script can't check if other processes requested that the system not sleep, e.g. an active remote desktop connection while the PC is otherwise within your idle thresholds; so it won't respect their request. You could fix this by either setting PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep to $false, or by running this script as admin and uncomment the ctrl+f:[respectOtherApps] code blocks.

Note:

I've always nuked Modern Standby from every PC I touched, because we have literally 0.0f low-power hardware and protocol standards, and I don't want constant 100W power draw, and for laptops my battery to run out in 2 hours while "sleeping" with the lid closed (Microsoft is the most infuriating thing in the history of ever). You can have a look at how I printed and fetched the sleep AC/DC settings, and figure out the parsing of anything else if you want. Tests & PRs welcome.

Note:

I wouldn't be caught dead writing for free 2000 lines of powershell script of all things, so for this I tried out LLMs. I don't consider llm output even remotely reliable, but this is all verified and very re-written by me. For those curious: I used 256k context and: qwen 3 coder next 80b a3b q6, qwen 3.6 35b a3b q8, and qwen 3.6 27b q4, locally. They're "great" (within 5-10% of the scores of the huge frontier models) but simultaneously also completely shit at even such a simple job, and not just because this solution doesn't already exist: ie they picked network and storage checks that take at least 1s to return a value, and were calling them repeatedly in loops per disk and per adapter, resulting in a while loop that runs once every 7-10s.. So the verdict is I had to do all the thinking myself. They only oneshotted the logging, the cpu, the sleep functions, and mostly the .PARAM & settings handling. Also the peak audio checking I had to research and write myself in python after many wildly off LLM solutions.

Run & Parameters:

There are a LOT of parameters you can set when calling the script or adding it to Task Scheduler (the ones you skip will have defaults).

To see all parameters and their description, run this command:

get-help "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -detailed

Run in a powershell terminal window, examples:

powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -FollowTheSameSleepAndScreenTimeSettingAsYourPowerPlan:$true -PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep:$true -IgnoreTheSettingsFile:$true # other flags -etc. -etc.

or

powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -FollowTheSameSleepAndScreenTimeSettingAsYourPowerPlan:$false -UserSpecifiedSleepIdleTimeMinutes:720 -PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep:$true -LockPcAtThisIdleTimeMinutes:3 -TurnOnScreensaverAtThisIdleTimeMinutes:0 -TurnOffDisplayAtThisIdleTimeMinutes:6 -IgnoreTheSettingsFile:$true # other flags -etc. -etc.

Run in Task Scheduler:

Program/script:

powershell.exe

Add arguments (window opens as minimized):

-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Minimized -File "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -FollowTheSameSleepAndScreenTimeSettingAsYourPowerPlan:$true -UserSpecifiedSleepIdleTimeMinutes:30 -PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep:$true -IgnoreTheSettingsFile:$true # other flags -etc. -etc.

Add arguments (no window, runs in background completely hidden):

-NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -WindowStyle Hidden -File "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -FollowTheSameSleepAndScreenTimeSettingAsYourPowerPlan:$true -UserSpecifiedSleepIdleTimeMinutes:30 -PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep:$true -IgnoreTheSettingsFile:$true # other flags -etc. -etc.

Alternative in case window is not hidden

Program/script:

C:\Windows\System32\conhost.exe

Add arguments (no window, runs in background completely hidden):

--headless powershell -WindowStyle hidden -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "C:/Commands_And_Logs/windows_idle_control_keeper.ps1" -FollowTheSameSleepAndScreenTimeSettingAsYourPowerPlan:$true -UserSpecifiedSleepIdleTimeMinutes:30 -PreventAndReplaceWindowsAutoSleep:$true -IgnoreTheSettingsFile:$true # other flags -etc. -etc.

PS:

Instead of regular params, I added $script:Config that loads from either the params ($PSBoundParameters) or the Settings_File_Windows_Idle_Control_Keeper_txt. So you can pause or tweak settings while the script is running (every FileSettingsPollIntervalMinutes).