Keep your laptop on with the lid closed
Use your monitor, keyboard and mouse with the laptop shut, on Windows or a Mac.
Most laptops go to sleep the moment you close the lid. That is the right choice for a laptop heading into a bag, and the wrong one for a laptop sitting on a desk plugged into a monitor, keyboard and mouse. It takes about a minute to change, and you only change it for when the laptop is plugged in.
Do this first: Windows 11
- Click Start, then Settings.
- Choose System, then Power & battery.
- Click Lid & power button controls.
- Find Closing the lid will make my PC. Set Plugged in to Do nothing.
- Leave On battery set to Sleep.
Close the lid and the picture moves over to your monitor. Open it again whenever you like.
Do not see Lid & power button controls? That section arrived in a recent Windows 11 update. If yours does not have it yet, use the Windows 10 steps below. They work on Windows 11 too.
Windows 10
- Click Start and type lid.
- Open Change what closing the lid does.
- Next to When I close the lid, set the Plugged in column to Do nothing.
- Leave On battery set to Sleep.
- Click Save changes.
Why only when it is plugged in. A laptop that keeps running inside a closed bag has nowhere to get rid of its heat, and it can get hot enough to harm the battery. Leaving the battery setting on Sleep means it still goes to sleep safely the moment you unplug it and pack it up.
If the setting is greyed out. On some of the computers we look after, power settings are set for the whole office on purpose. If you see a note saying some settings are managed by your organization, this one needs us.
Mac
A Mac laptop has no setting for this. It stays on with the lid closed once three things are connected, and goes to sleep when they are not.
- With the lid open, plug in the power adapter.
- Connect your monitor and turn it on.
- Connect your keyboard and mouse. Wireless ones are fine.
- Wait until your desktop shows up on the monitor, then close the lid.
Without a monitor, a Mac always sleeps when you close it. That is built in and there is no switch to change it. If you need a Mac to keep working on its own, say to finish a large upload, leave the lid open and let the screen turn itself off.
Still going to sleep after a while?
Closing the lid is one setting. How long the laptop waits before it naps when nobody is using it is another. That only matters if you need it to keep running while you are away from it. On Windows 11, go to Settings, System, Power & battery, open Screen and sleep (on newer versions, Screen, sleep & hibernate timeouts) and set the plugged-in sleep time to Never.
Did this not sort it out?
Tell Michael which step you got to and what the screen says. A photo of the screen from your phone is perfect.