Auto on laptop

Windows computers that support advanced startup options in the BIOS can be set to start automatically on a schedule. Mac computers running Mac OS X Mountain Lion can also be set to start up automatically, provided the Mac is connected to a power source. You can help prepare your business for each day and save time by setting the computers in your company to automatically boot up at a specific time. While this feature proves convenient for supported systems, make sure you disable automatic startup when a holiday or other event results in your business closing for the day.

Auto Start on Windows

1. Power on your computer and watch for a screen that displays the keyboard shortcut necessary to boot into the BIOS. Tap the keyboard shortcut repeatedly at a 1-second interval until the BIOS setup screen appears. If Windows starts, shut down the computer and try again, pressing the keyboard shortcut when the first boot screen appears.

2. Navigate to the "Advanced" or "Power" menu in the BIOS using the arrow keys. Each BIOS has different settings, so you may need to search each menu to find the option that controls your computer's power settings.

3. Select the "Power-On," "Auto Start" or equivalent menu and use the arrow keys to select from the available scheduling method. Supported BIOS configurations usually allow you to select individual days; in some cases, you may be able to select weekends or weekdays only. For each option, use the arrow keys to select "Enable" or "Disable" for the schedule option.

4. Select the "Time" or similar option in your BIOS and use the arrow keys to set the time that you want your computer to boot on the days you've enabled. The BIOS clock uses 24-hour time to indicate AM and PM settings.

Auto Start on Mac

1. Click the "Apple" menu and select "System Preferences..." from the drop-down menu.

2. Select "Energy Saver" in the Hardware section.

3. Click the "Lock" to make changes and enter your administrator username and password.

4. Click the "Schedule..." button.

5. Tick the "Start Up Or Wake" check box. Choose "Weekends," "Weekdays," "Every Day" or a specific day from the drop-down menu. Enter the startup time in the Time field. Click "OK." You may also configure "Sleep" or "Shut Down" options in the next field using the same process.

Your Laptop can be configured to automatically open when its lid is lifted and shut down when the lid is closed. You will find below the steps to Shut Down Laptop When the Lid is Closed.

Shut Down Laptop When Lid is Closed in Windows 10

Configuring the Laptop to open when the Lid is lifted up and shut down when the lid is closed can be useful for students, mobile banking professionals and others who move around with their Laptops.

This feature eliminates the need to start the computer by pressing its Power button and also ensures that the Laptop is Powered OFF when its lid is closed.

This feature may not be available on many older Laptops and also on some newer Laptops due to hardware and driver limitations.

Also on some Laptops, only the option to close Laptop using Lid is made available, while the option to open Laptop when the Lid is lifted is kept hidden.

1. Shut Down Laptop When Lid is Closed

Follow the steps below to make your Laptop shut down when the Lid is closed.

Go to Settings > System > click on Power & Sleep in the left pane. In the right-pane, scroll down to ‘Related Settings’ section and click on Additional Power Settings link.

On Power Options screen, click on Choose What Closing the lid does link in the left-pane.

On the next screen, set ‘When I Close the lid‘ setting under ‘Battery’ and ‘Plugged in’ to Shut Down.

Click on Save Changes to save this setting on your computer.

After this, you will find your computer shutting down as soon as its lid is closed.

2. Open Laptop When the Lid is Lifted

You can also configure the Power Settings on your Laptop to turn on the display as soon as its Lid is opened or lifted up.

Go to Settings > System > click on Power & Sleep in the left pane. In the right-pane, scroll down to ‘Related Settings’ section and click on Additional Power Settings link.

On Power Options screen, click on Change Plan Settings link, located right next to the active power plan setting on your computer.

On Edit Plan Settings screen, click on Change Advanced Power Settings Link.

On the next screen, expand Power Buttons and lid entry > expand Lid open action and select Turn on the display option for ‘On battery‘ and ‘Plugged-in‘ entries.

Click on Apply and OK to save this setting on your computer.

After this, you will find your computer starting up as soon as its lid is opened or lifted up.

3. Lid Open Option Missing in Windows 10

If the Lid Open Action is not available on your Laptop, it is likely that this option is hidden on your computer.

Right-click on Start button and click on Command Prompt (Admin) option.

In the command prompt screen, type powercfg -attributes SUB_BUTTONS 99ff10e7-23b1-4c07-a9d1-5c3206d741b4 -ATTRIB_HIDE and press the Enter button on the keyboard of your laptop.

When this command is executed, you won’t receive a confirmation, but Lid Open Action will be immediately added to the Power Options screen on your computer.

After the Lid Open Option is enabled, you can follow the steps to Open or Shut Down Laptop using the Lid.

Note: If the above command did not add the Lid Open Action, you might be able to enable this option by going to BIOS settings of your computer.

Dear Lifehacker,
I like to turn my computer off at night, but I hate sitting and waiting for it to boot up in the morning. Is there any way I can make my computer start automatically in the morning so it's ready for me when I get up?

Sincerely,
Bored During Boot

Icon portion of photo by wordstofyre.

Dear Bored,

We know your pain. While many would recommend you just leave your computer on 24/7, we know that can drain unnecessary power, not to mention make a lot of noise. It's actually pretty easy to start up your computer each morning when you wake up, or each day when you come home from work. You can even set it to shut itself down at night, too. Here's how.

On Windows

To automatically start your computer up at a specific time of day, you'll actually need to edit your BIOS settings. To do this:

• Boot up your computer and enter your BIOS setup. Usually this involves pressing the Delete key as your computer boots (your computer should say Press DEL to Enter Setup or something similar as you turn it on).
• Navigate to the Power Options. If your BIOS supports it, there should be a function for automatically starting up your computer at a certain time of day. Mine was called "Resume by Alarm", but yours might be called something different.
• Enable that setting and set the time you want your computer to start every day. Save and Exit the BIOS, and your computer should follow that schedule from now on.

You probably shut down your computer when you're done using it at the end of the day, but if not, you can set it to shut itself down on a schedule. This is easy to do with Windows Task Scheduler:

1. Hit the Start menu and type in "task scheduler". Open up Task Scheduler from your results.
2. In the right pane, hit Create Task. Give it a name, and under the General tab, check "Run with highest privileges". Also check "Run whether user is logged on or not", if you ever leave your computer logged out.
3. Head to the Settings tab and check "Stop the task if it runs longer than" and set it to "1 hour". This won't stop your computer from sleeping, but will stop your computer from thinking a task is still running.
4. Head to the Actions tab, hit New, and choose "Start a Program" as your action. Set the Program to shutdown and the arguments to -s.
5. Lastly, head to the Triggers tab and click New. Change the schedule to fit whatever you want (say, Daily at 12:00AM), and hit OK. Hit OK again at the next window and your task should be saved in Task Scheduler.

That's it. Now your computer should shut down and wake up on your own schedule.

On a Mac

This process is much easier on a Mac than on Windows. To set it up on OS X:

1. Open up System Preferences and click Energy Saver.
2. In the bottom right corner, click the Schedule button.
3. Check the box next to "Start up or wake" to schedule when your computer turns on and the checkbox beneath it to schedule when you computer goes to sleep, restarts, or shuts down. You can set the schedules for specific days, every day, just weekdays, or weekends only.
4. Once you've made all your choices, click the OK button.

Note that if you're setting schedules on a Mac laptop, it will need to be connected to power for these schedules to function.

There are a number of different ways you could do this, too, like using previously mentioned WakeupOnStandby, but this is a nice low hassle method that doesn't require any extra software.

Windows: Having your computer wake up with you or wake up in the middle of the night to do routine…

Read more

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at . You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.