Windows 7 power options??

[#1]

Am I missing something with windows 7 power options.
When I set this on my xp pro PC it shuts down a certain time after computer inactivity. Like it's supposed to.
On my windows 7 PC "computer inactivity" just seems to mean mouse and keyboard  inactivity.
With the PC shutting down while encoding or downloading programs are running.
Is this just a bit of windows 7 corner cutting that I have to make allowances for?

[#2]

you should be able to change your setting , control panel  , system , power options ,. Change plan settings 

[#3]

But nothing (already looked in depth) appears to change windows 7 oddly lame definition of "computer inactivity".

[#4]

Let me try to help you with a picture. In control panel then power options should bring up the screen in the attachment?

[#5]

Windows 7 idle detection is poor, I dont know a fix for your problem.

[#6]

Maybe my question could be put better.
I know where all the power options are and how to change them.
My question is that sevens version of what constitutes "computer inactivity" is different than xp's.
Otherwise windows would not shut down when a program is running.
Seven seems a cut down version of xp in that it seems, as I've already said, just to regard mouse and keyboard actions as  "computer inactivity" .

[#7]

Quote from: chrcoluk

Windows 7 idle detection is poor

I suspect it's just something I have to work around.

[#8]

Quote from: billnotben

Seven seems a cut down version of xp in that it seems, as I've already said, just to regard mouse and keyboard actions as  "computer inactivity" .

In some ways it is!
I have Home Premium and unlike XP, when i go Start > Run there isn't a list of previous commands there like there would be on XP. Granted 7 is a lot more stable than XP and i can leave it running for months without hassle but there are little things i miss from XP that don't seem to be in 7.
That said, XP didn't have the resource monitor that 7 has which is superior for checking out what programs are reading and writing to the disk etc.

[#9]

There is a small utility called 'stop screen saver' that will perform a pseudo mouse wiggle at your preset time. I have been recently seeing a small number of users with a sleep/ hibernate issue that we can't get to the bottom of. In there cases it's a matter of seconds.
We've looked at the power plans, the screen saver and the registry 'sleep timeout' settings and we haven't found the cause yet.

[#10]

And when I want to wake my Dell XPS 8870 desktop I can touch any key. However my wife's Dell Inspiron laptop doesn't want to know about that. You have to hit the flashing on/off button. Both running under 8.1 !

[#11]

Could it be due to the version of Windows 7, ? I think there are 3 versions, home, premium,& professional.
Under power management I get a drop down list of how long the screen should remain on with one option which is never, ie never meening in this case it remains on until I shut down the computer.

[#12]

I just want windows to shut down after a period of inactivity.
As I've said windows 7 differs from xp in that it seems to redefine inactivity as not touching the mouse or keyboard.
So when I've left the pc busy encoding video and downloading from the net it still shuts down if I don't touch the mouse or keyboard.
It clearly shouldn't work in this fashion and makes some of the power options silly and pointless.

And yes of course I've long since made any necessary adjustments to work around these deficiencies.

Just looking at my xp pc I actually have that one set to turn off after just 10 minutes of inactivity and that works perfectly. Never turning off and interrupting any busy program despite the short set time. Just like it should.

[#13]

worth a read https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa383561%28v=vs.85%29.aspx ; http://techlikes.com/2010/10/11/scheduled-shutdown-windows-7-after-idle.html as it may help

[#14]

Thanks I was looking for something on "Task Idle Conditions".
But as chrcoluk said "Detecting the Idle State" seems to be a weakness of windows 7.

[#15]

you mean like in the first link