How to keep your computer from going to sleep (Windows and Mac)

Few things are more frustrating than starting a long download or render, walking away, and coming back to a locked, sleeping machine that stalled halfway through. Both Windows and macOS are aggressive about sleeping to save power, and their defaults rarely match how you actually work.

On Windows

Open Settings, System, Power and battery, Screen and sleep. Set "when plugged in, put my device to sleep after" to Never. This stops full sleep, but note the screen can still lock and some background policies (especially on managed work laptops) will override you.

On macOS

Go to System Settings, Lock Screen and Battery. Turn off "Start screen saver when inactive" and raise the display-off timers. On a MacBook, the display still sleeps on battery no matter what, and closing the lid always sleeps the machine.

Why the settings aren't enough

Changing power settings is blunt: it drains battery, keeps your screen bright, and gets reset by corporate device policies. It also does nothing for status apps that watch for input rather than power state.

The simpler approach

Instead of fighting your power settings, keep the machine genuinely active. Virtual Mouse Jiggler makes tiny, human-like cursor movements at a set interval so your computer never registers as idle, during downloads, renders, installs, or presentations. Set it once and forget it, on Mac, Windows, or Chrome.