How to Disable Modern Standby in Windows 10

There are two power models in Windows 10: S3 and S0 Low Power Idle (Modern Standby). Modern Standby in Windows 10 provides an instant on/off experience similar to smartphones.

Modern Standby enables the S0 low-power idle power plan, which keeps your laptop or desktop in the lowest power mode while allowing apps to receive the latest content, such as incoming email, VoIP calls, Windows updates, etc.

The system will enter Modern Standby when the user takes any of the following actions:

• Press the system power button.
• Closes the lid of the laptop/desktop/tablet.
• Select Sleep from the power button in the Windows Start menu.
• Waits for the system to idle and enter sleep automatically, according to the Power and sleep settings.

The amount of battery saving in Modern Standby is calculated by determining the time the system spends in DRIPS (Deepest Run-time Idle Platform State). DRIPS occurs when the system is consuming the lowest amount of power possible. If any background tasks, such as receiving emails or Windows updates, consume power, the system is not considered to be in DRIPS mode.

Total Modern Standby session time = DRIPS time + non-DRIPS time

Option 1 – Disable Modern Standby in Windows 10 using Registry

There could be a scenario where you do not want to enable Modern Standby on Windows 10 and prefer to use another available and supported power plan, such as S3. In that case, you can disable Modern Standby by following the steps below.

Please note that the given steps require changes in the registry of the system, which will require administrator rights.

1. Log in to the Windows 10 device.
2. Click on Start and search for Registry Editor.
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power.
4. Right-click on the right-hand side pane and click on New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

5. Provide the name of the registry entry as PlatformAoAcOverride and set its value to 0.
6. Since this registry change is in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, a restart of the PC will be required.

Disable Modern Standby on Windows 10 Using Command Prompt

In the previous section, we saw how to disable Modern Standby using the GUI interface of the Registry Editor. If you prefer to use the Command Prompt instead of the registry editor to disable Modern Standby, you can follow the steps below:

1. Login to the Windows 10 device.
2. Go to Start and search for Command Prompt.
3. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
4. Type the following command and press Enter.
5. After this command is executed successfully, restart your device.

reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power /v PlatformAoAcOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0​

How to Check If Modern Standby is Supported in Windows 10

Not all devices support Modern Standby, but the number of systems that do is increasing. I have been using a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 laptop, which supports Modern Standby. Here’s how you can check if your device supports Modern Standby.

1. Login to your Windows 10 device.
2. Click on Start and search for Command Prompt.
3. Launch Command Prompt.
4. Type the command powercfg -a to check if Modern Standby is supported.

The powercfg -a command lists the sleep states available on your computer. In the screenshot below, you can see that this Windows 10 device is in Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected State, indicating that Modern Standby is supported and enabled on this device.

If you run the powercfg -a command on your system and it shows that S0 Low Power Idle is not supported, this could be a limitation of the system’s hardware to support Modern Standby. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to enable it. The alternative is to continue using Standby S3 or any other supported power plan.

Modern Standby (S0 Low power idle) can be in Network Connected mode or Network Disconnected mode.

• Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected: This means that Modern Standby with network connectivity is active in sleep mode.
• Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Disconnected: This means that Modern Standby operates without network connectivity while in sleep mode, and the system spends most of the time in DRIPS (Deepest Run-time Idle Platform State).

FAQs on Modern Standby

Below are some of the frequently asked questions about Modern Standby:

Powercfg /?

C:\WINDOWS\system32>powercfg /?
POWERCFG /COMMAND [ARGUMENTS]
Description:
  Enables users to control power settings on a local system.
  For detailed command and option information, run "POWERCFG /? <COMMAND>"
Command List:
  /LIST, /L          Lists all power schemes.
  /QUERY, /Q         Displays the contents of a power scheme.
  /CHANGE, /X        Modifies a setting value in the current power scheme.
  /CHANGENAME        Modifies the name and description of a power scheme.
  /DUPLICATESCHEME   Duplicates a power scheme.
  /DELETE, /D        Deletes a power scheme.
  /DELETESETTING     Deletes a power setting.
  /SETACTIVE, /S     Makes a power scheme active on the system.
  /GETACTIVESCHEME   Retrieves the currently active power scheme.
  /SETACVALUEINDEX   Sets the value associated with a power setting
                     while the system is powered by AC power.
  /SETDCVALUEINDEX   Sets the value associated with a power setting
                     while the system is powered by DC power.
  /IMPORT            Imports all power settings from a file.
  /EXPORT            Exports a power scheme to a file.
  /ALIASES           Displays all aliases and their corresponding GUIDs.
  /GETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR
                     Gets a security descriptor associated with a specified
                     power setting, power scheme, or action.
  /SETSECURITYDESCRIPTOR
                     Sets a security descriptor associated with a
                     power setting, power scheme, or action.
  /HIBERNATE, /H     Enables and disables the hibernate feature.
  /AVAILABLESLEEPSTATES, /A
                     Reports the sleep states available on the system.
  /DEVICEQUERY       Returns a list of devices that meet specified criteria.
  /DEVICEENABLEWAKE  Enables a device to wake the system from a sleep state.
  /DEVICEDISABLEWAKE Disables a device from waking the system from a sleep
                     state.
  /LASTWAKE          Reports information about what woke the system from the
                     last sleep transition.
  /WAKETIMERS        Enumerates active wake timers.
  /REQUESTS          Enumerates application and driver Power Requests.
  /REQUESTSOVERRIDE  Sets a Power Request override for a particular Process,
                     Service, or Driver.
  /ENERGY            Analyzes the system for common energy-efficiency and
                     battery life problems.
  /BATTERYREPORT     Generates a report of battery usage.
  /SLEEPSTUDY        Generates a diagnostic system power transition report.
  /SRUMUTIL          Dumps Energy Estimation data from System Resource Usage
                     Monitor (SRUM).
  /SYSTEMSLEEPDIAGNOSTICS
                     The system sleep diagnostics report has been deprecated and
                     replaced with the system power report. Please use the command
                     "powercfg /systempowerreport" instead.
  /SYSTEMPOWERREPORT Generates a diagnostic system power transition report.
  /POWERTHROTTLING   Control power throttling for an application.
  /PROVISIONINGXML, /PXML    Generate an XML file containing power setting overrides.

Conclusion

Modern Standby saves your laptop’s or desktop’s battery, keeping your device active for longer periods. If you use your device intermittently or are away from it frequently, this can save a significant amount of energy. However, there may be scenarios where you do not want to enable Modern Standby. In such cases, you can use the steps provided in this blog post to create a registry entry and disable Modern Standby.