Keep a work laptop display awake

Set it up in Edge or Chrome

1. 1Open AwakeTab in Edge or Chrome.Edge comes with Windows. Pick 30 min, or tap "Until…" and choose when your day ends, such as 5:30 PM.
2. 2Tap Start.You'll see "Starting…" briefly, then "Screen awake" once Edge or Chrome agrees.
3. 3Snap it beside your work.Press Windows key + Left arrow, or drag the window to your second monitor.

What to expect on a managed laptop

The tab uses the Screen Wake Lock API, a standard browser feature, to ask the laptop to keep the display on, the same request a video player makes during a film. While the display is on, Windows doesn’t idle-sleep, and a Mac behaves the same way in Chrome.

The tab has to stay visible, but not in front. A window snapped beside your report, or on a second monitor, is enough.

On a work phone, a management profile may cap Auto-Lock. Whether a Safari tab keeps the screen on past that cap is not yet device-tested; the result will go on our how-we-tested page.

The pill at the top of the tool tells you what the browser is doing:

Screen awake

The display timeout is held off. A separate lock policy still runs.

Paused — tab hidden

The window is minimised or covered. Uncover AwakeTab and it asks again.

Blocked — here's the fix

The browser refused. The card shows the cause it can see and what to try; it cannot change a rule your IT team has set.

What it can’t do

• A lock policy that isn’t the display timeout. Many organisations lock the screen after a set time without input. That timer still runs. To find out which kind your laptop has, see Lock screen versus display sleep.
• Smart-card removal. Pull the card and the policy locks the laptop, as it should.
• Closing the lid. The laptop sleeps.
• Your chat status. Teams shows Away after about 5 minutes without keyboard or mouse input, and Slack after about 10, whether or not the screen is lit. Does a wake lock keep Teams green? has the sources.
• The minute after locking. A locked Windows PC turns its monitor off after about 60 seconds, by design. See Windows 11 screen turns off after 1 minute.

Is this allowed on my work laptop?

AwakeTab doesn’t fake activity, doesn’t change your status, and leaves sign-in and lock policies exactly as they are. If your employer has rules about screen locking, follow them.

A mouse jiggler is different: it sends fake input. Mouse jigglers vs a wake-lock tab compares the two.

For IT admins

An administrator can switch off the browser’s wake-lock permission by policy. The page then can’t keep the screen on, and the pill says so rather than pretending. The page sets no cookies and needs no account.

The optional extension, AwakeTab for Chrome, asks for the power, storage and alarms permissions, plus notifications only if the user turns them on. It has no access to sites unless a user adds one for auto-start. Your usual extension allow and block lists apply to it like any other.

• You know whether your laptop has a lock policy as well as a display timeout.
• Nothing covers AwakeTab: it is snapped to one side or on a second monitor.
• The session ends when your day does, such as "Until…" 5:30 PM.
• Your employer's rules on screen locking allow it.