I wanted to make a change on my (yes, I know) Windows 7 computer. Right now, when it’s in Sleep mode I can wake it up by bumping the mouse or tapping a key. I want to remove the mouse wake up.
I found I can do this using the command line and powercfg. Specifically, the command
powercfg/devicedisablewake devicename
When I try to do that, it tells me I don’t have permission to do so.
I tried by opening the command prompt with “Run as administrator.” No dice. Says I don’t have permission.
So I logged on to the dedicated Admin account, right-clicked on Command Prompt, choose “Run as administrator” and same thing. Reports I don’t have permission.
I next went into the User Control Panel and enabled the (sorta hidden) Administrator account and did the same thing. Still tells me I don’t have permission.
What am I doing or not doing that I can’t set this simple flag? It isn’t a BIOS setting, I looked there before trying powercfg. I believe I have the syntax right but I keep getting stymied by a permission I can’t find.
The PC is not part of a group and is mostly here because there are some programs I am too attached to.
I’ve been looking around, and it seems that usually there’s an option in the device properties for your mouse. If that option isn’t there, then I suspect you can’t actually turn it off for that device. And that this is why you keep getting an error.
I found this is the case with the default Windows 7 mouse driver. So I suspect that it may be possible for you to install another mouse that would give you the option.
It may also be that your computer just doesn’t have such an option, though. Or that you can find an option in your BIOS to disable the mouse wakeup instead. Assuming your mouse is USB, you might be able to disable “wake on USB.” Though, if your keyboard is also USB, that might make it where the keyboard wouldn’t turn it back on, either. (Though, if you have a PS/2 port on your computer, you might could use a PS/2 keyboard to get around that. They’re not too hard to find.)
Thank you for the response. At first, when reading it, I was ready to tell you about how it’s technically a wireless mouse and keyboard combination. I was going to tell you that the important thing is that powercfg recognized it, and listed it, but that the sticking point was the whole thing about the missing permission.
Then I re-read your message. Something about the driver…
So I looked at the properties for the wireless keyboard/mouse receiver. What do you know? There’s a separate tab for the mouse. And on that tab is a “Change Settings” button, which, with the normal system admin password, I can uncheck the box that says “Allow this device to wake the computer.”
Update: And it doesn’t work. Despite what I tried above and verifying that the check mark is no longer present, bumping the table (which is what I was trying to fix in the first place since my clumsiness isn’t likely to change) still wakes the computer.
And, of course, it grieves me to no end to be told I don’t have permission to do something.
Sorry the option on the driver info page doesn’t work. If I had to guess, it can’t really differentiate the mouse and keyboard when the computer is asleep. It likely just receives a generic “input device” signal and turns back on.
I agree about the permissions frustration. For some reason, sometimes Windows will say you “don’t have permission” when it means that it just doesn’t work.
You might consider buying an additional wireless mouse to use instead of the current one. Get one you can return, and see if you can turn off wakeup for just that mouse. And then just take out the battery (or let it run down if it’s rechargeable) for the other mouse, so it won’t be a problem.
I also know of a brand of wireless mouse that goes to sleep on its own after five minutes. You can only wake it by pressing one of the buttons. That mouse won’t wake up your computer once it goes to sleep.
This doesn’t help your situation directly, but here’s been my personal solution:
I have a wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse. Both can be paired with three computers–the keyboard has three buttons to select which computer to send commands to, while the mouse has a single button that cycles between them.
So when my computer is shut down, I press the selectors to point to a non-existent computer. There is a trick, though–you can only point to a computer that’s been paired already. Doesn’t matter if it’s off or not; it just needs to have been paired. The mouse and keyboard each came with a universal receiver, so I can easily pair with two different computers, and then leave the second one disconnected (as it happens, I do have an actual second computer, but it’s off most of the time).