When my system goes to sleep or I put it to sleep, I will often wake it to find that all my open applications have been closed. There is no indication that Windows update has installed any updates and done a restart. I have looked hard at the power settings to no avail. Anyway, hibernating shouldn't shut down my apps. Change Sleep Mode Settings. If the Sleep Mode is set to Never, then the computer is not going to.

Windows 10 Sleep Timeout
Windows 10 Update Sleep Mode

Windows 10 Wakes Your Sleeping PC to Update When your Windows 10 PC goes into sleep mode, it saves the current system state and stores that information into memory. The PC then goes into low-power mode, shutting mostly everything down save for the RAM sticks. What happens next depends on your PC, its active power profile, and wake timers. This is being experienced by customers who are running Windows 10 May 2020 Update. While this update includes fixes for critical issues and some improvements, it is causing problems in the ‘Sleep Mode’. As explained by few reports on the web, the issue keeps waking up the PC even when they are supposed to be in the ‘Sleep Mode’. Windows 10 update breaks sleep mode feature – but there’s a fix All Windows 10 devices ship with a feature called ‘sleep mode’ where the system simply goes into a low power state and remains that.

Facepalm: In a totally unexpected turn of events, a Windows 10 update has broken one of the OS’s major features. On this occasion, the bug is affecting some machines' Sleep Mode, with cases of computers repeatedly waking up for no reason, or the low power state not working at all. But there is a temporary fix.

Windows Latest reports that the issue first appeared with the Windows May 2020 update, which introduced a slew of glitches to many PCs. Windows 10 KB4568831 fixed the borked Sleep Mode, but the problem has returned for some users who’ve installed the September 2020 optional update.

“When I close the lid, press the power button, or select Sleep in the power menu or the win-x menu, instead of sleeping, the screen simply turns off, and my laptop does not go to sleep even after leaving it alone all night,” one person wrote on Microsoft’s forum.

Sleep Mode: annoying when it doesn't work

Users discovered this is the fault of a Windows Update process called “MoUSO Core Worker Process.” It’s causing unwanted wakeups on PCs that have applied Windows 10 version 2004 and have an optional update pending for installation.

If your Sleep Mode is no longer working, the issue can be fixed by going into Windows Updates Settings and preventing the update service from running at odd hours. It’s then a matter of simply rebooting your PC and trying Sleep Mode again.

If that doesn’t work, Windows Latest recommends trying the following steps:

1. Open Windows Search.

2. Search for ‘Services.msc’.

3. In the Services window, look for ‘Windows Update’ service.

4. Click on Windows Update and select ‘Stop.’

5. Click on the same entry again and select ‘Start’ and then select ‘Restart.’

6. Go to Windows Update and click on Check for updates. Install the pending updates and reboot your device.

This is only a temporary solution, but it should stop MoUsoCoreWorker.exe from preventing Sleep Mode. There's no word yet on whether Microsoft is working on a fix.

Image credit: OtmarW

Windows 10 Sleep Timeout

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