prevent the system from entering sleep or turning off the display

• Background and Information
• Usage
• Development
  • Python venv and pip
  • Compile
• Further Reading
  • Useful Links
• Contributing to this Project
• Security Policy for this Project

This simple windows app keeps a machine/workstation from going idle. Oriignally this application pressed the Scroll Lock button twice every second to keep windows "awake". The recent version now uses a native windows call "ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED" to keep the display on instead.

I built this tool to solve a problem, learn about tkinter, pyautogui and python threading. Displaying a basic GUI while a second thread takes care of the automation. Whilst the latest version is much more efficient/compact, you can still see that code in as recent as the v0.4.0 tag.

The App starts in the system tray (with the Z icon).

A right-click context menu allows you to "Start/Pause" the program (pausing will allow windows to sleep again, this is represented by ⏸ icon) or "Quit" and close the application.

# create a venv named venv
py -m venv venv

# run venv
venv/Scripts/Activate.ps1

# install pip prereqs
py -m pip install -r .\requirements.txt --trusted-host pypi.python.org --trusted-host files.pythonhosted.org --trusted-host pypi.org

# list pip installs inside the venv
pip freeze

# compile manually
pyinstaller 'src/awake.spec' --noconfirm

package with nsis manually
makensis 'installer/awake.nsi'

# run both automatically
py 'tools/make.py'

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58273482/can-pyautogui-be-used-to-prevent-windows-screen-lock
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-setthreadexecutionstate
• change icon dynamically in pystray

This project welcomes contributions of all types. We ask that before you start work on a feature that you would like to contribute, please read the Contributor's Guide.

This project seeks to build secure, versatile and robust portable software. If you find an issue, please report it following the Security Policy