System Disable Modern Standby in Windows 10 and Windows 11


  • Staff
Power_banner.png

This tutorial will show you how to disable Modern Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) to enable S3 support on a Windows 10 and Windows 11 device.

In Windows 10 and Windows 11, there are two power models for PCs: S3 and Modern Standby (S0 Low Power Idle). The S3 power model is an older standard and is not capable of the instant on that consumers expect from modern devices. Modern Standby is capable of leveraging all the capabilities of a modern chipset and can be integrated across the breadth of tablets and PCs today. The first iteration of Modern Standby was Connected Standby, which first shipped in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Modern Standby expands upon the Windows 8.x Connected Standby concept, allowing for flexibility in component selection and the ability for the OS to manage network connectivity in standby.

Windows 10 and Windows 11 Modern Standby (Modern Standby) expands the Windows 8.1 Connected Standby power model. Connected Standby, and consequently Modern Standby, enable an instant on / instant off user experience, similar to smartphone power models. Just like the phone, the S0 low power idle model enables the system to stay connected to the network while in a low power mode.

Although Modern Standby enables an instant on/off user experience like Connected Standby, Modern Standby is more inclusive than the Windows 8.1 Connected Standby power model. Modern Standby allows for market segments previously limited to the Traditional Sleep (S3) power model to take advantage of the low power idle model. Example systems include systems based on rotational media and hybrid media (for example, SSD + HDD or SSHD) and/or a NIC that doesn’t support all of the prior requirements for Connected Standby.

Modern Standby systems can be connected (enabled), disconnected (disabled), or managed by Windows to allow network connectivity during standby. This behavior is dictated by the hardware and/or by configuration.
  • Connected Modern Standby will allow you to stay connected to the network while in standby to still receive and get notifications about email, VoIP calls, and such, but it will use more battery.
  • Disconnected Modern Standby will allow longer battery life, but you will no longer have the advantages of staying connected to the network while in standby.
  • Managed by Windows will allow Windows to manage network connectivity during standby.
On any Modern Standby system (whether connected or disconnected), the system remains in S0 while in standby, allowing the following scenarios to work:
  • Background activity
  • Faster resume from a low power state
On systems that are connected while in standby, wakes based on specific network patterns may also be set by the operating system to enable apps to receive the latest content such as incoming email, VoIP calls, or news articles.

See also:

If you disabled Modern Standby and your PC crashes when entering S3, you can press and hold the power button to force a hard shut down, press the power button again to turn on, and enable Modern Standby below again.

This can happen if the device OEM has not included support for S3 in the BIOS/UEFI firmware.


You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable Modern Standby.

You cannot enable Modern Standby on a device that didn't originally support it.



Contents

  • Option One: Enable or Disable Modern Standby using Command
  • Option Two: Enable or Disable Modern Standby using REG file


EXAMPLE: Modern Standby enabled and disabled

Modern_Standby_enabled.png
powercfg_a-2.png

Modern_Standby_disabled.png





Option One

Enable or Disable Modern Standby using Command


1 Open an elevated command prompt in Windows 10, or open Windows Terminal (Admin) in Windows 11, and select either Windows PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into the console, and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

(Enable Modern Standby - default)​
reg delete "HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power" /v PlatformAoAcOverride /f​

Enable_Modern_Standby_command.png

OR​

(Disable Modern Standby)​
reg add HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power /v PlatformAoAcOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0​

Disable_Modern_Standby_command.png

3 Restart the computer to apply.




Option Two

Enable or Disable Modern Standby using REG file


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.

2 Enable Modern Standby

This is the default setting.


A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Enable_Modern_Standby.reg​


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power]
"PlatformAoAcOverride"=-

3 Disable Modern Standby

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the REG file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Disable_Modern_Standby.reg​


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code: 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power]
"PlatformAoAcOverride"=dword:00000000

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 Restart the computer to apply.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink


Related Tutorials

 

Attachments

  • Power.png
    Power.png
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  • Disable_Modern_Standby.reg
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  • Enable_Modern_Standby.reg
    580 bytes · Views: 341
Last edited:
Click to expand...
tony359 said:
can something switch it from "low power mode" to "full power mode"
Click to expand...
You could use Event viewer to see when the computer was roused from S0 Modern standby to S0 [which is what you referred to as "full power mode"].
And you can then use Event viewer to see what happened just beforehand.

1 See power state changes
You can check transitions between power-sleep states in Event viewer by creating an Event viewer, Custom view that lists them.
You can import the Power - Sleep-Hibernate-S0 transitions Custom view I use for this - Import Custom view - #4 - TenForums [read from the line starting with I suggest through to that beginning On a similarly confusing note]
This Custom view definition works without any modification in both Win10 & Win11 and in both S3 Sleep computers & S0 Modern standby computers.
The power state transition events can sometimes provide information about why the change happened but not always. And the information they report might sometimes be fairly meaningless.

Sample output
The system is exiting connected standby .png

Incidentally, it will say that it is exiting connected standby even when it actually exits disconnected standby.

2 See what happened just beforehand.
Look at the top of the Custom views list & select Administrative events.
Find that The system is exiting connected standby event in the list then look below that to see what happened just beforehand.
You might find something useful, you might not.

tony359 said:
Will powercfg - lastwake give me any useful insight?
Click to expand...
No.
On an S0 Modern standby computer, that will only record waking up from Hibernation.
And even then it is not helpful very often.


I'm looking forward to hearing what Lenovo support have to say about your incessant fans.
Lots of people used to report this problem.



All the best,
Denis
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home x64 Version 23H2 Build 22631.3447
I'm looking forward to hearing what Lenovo support have to say about your incessant fans.
Click to expand...

I'm confident they won't come up with anything useful. I seriously doubt I will manage to get past the first level of support where they send me canned replies asking to update, restart and re-install.

Thanks for the instructions, I'll take a look.

That said, this morning for the first time I found the laptop cold. I Hibernated it yesterday. It takes 15s to wake up. I'm fine with that :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Ryzen 5800X
    Motherboard
    MSI B550 Tomahawk
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    RTX 3070
tony359 said:
Can a similar thing happen with S0?
Click to expand...
The answer to that question is explained in the 1st link that's in the post above yours.
tony359 said:
Obviously you cannot "wake" a laptop into modern standby
Click to expand...
Obviously you can wake it from Modern Standby, just like you can "put it to sleep" into Modern Standby (if it supports Modern Standby and is working correctly). The word "sleep" just gets a different meaning when Modern Standby aka S0 Low Power Idle is what's being referred to (i.e. as opposed to referring to S3 Standby aka Legacy Standby). That is, the context of the word defines what the word factually means.
tony359 said:
, but can something switch it from "low power mode" to "full power mode" as it used to happen with my S3-enabled laptop?
Click to expand...
If I don't disable Modern Standby (by using the PlatformAoAcOverride flag in the registry), then my laptop inadvertenlty wakes up from Modern Standby causing the laptop's built-in screen to turn on. Usually this happens within about half an hour or so after I put it to "sleep". It also happens regardless of whether anything is plugged in to the laptop. This also includes the power adapter. Disabling Connected Standby also doesn't make a difference. I even tried disabling the WiFi adapter (via Win+R ➜ ncpa.cpl ➜ right-click on WiFi ➜ Disable). All to no avail. My laptop doesn't have a built-in Ethernet adapter. The event that wakes it from Modern Standby has Event ID 507 and appears to originate from either a mouse input or a keyboard input (it varies), but... I haven't touched the laptop's internal keyboard or touchpad, and, there are no other issues with this laptop. The USB corded mouse is unplugged and the Unifying receiver antenna that belongs to the K800 keyboard is unplugged, along with everything else so that can't be it either. Manually waking the laptop by pressing a key or by clicking with the front corners of the MSFT Precision Touchpad works. I consider myself lucky that disabling Modern Standby with the PlatformAoAcOverride registry change works... S3 works.
tony359 said:
Will powercfg - lastwake give me any useful insight?
Click to expand...
For me, if Modern Standby is enabled, running the powercfg lastwake command returns none (have to look for the Event ID 507 in System ➜ Kernel power to find the wake source, but like I said the wake source doesn't appear to make any logical sense each time when it just wakes itself up inadvertently yet again from Modern Standby).
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Asus TUF Gaming (2024)
    CPU
    i7 13650HX
    Memory
    16GB DDR5
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile
    Sound Card
    Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
    Screen Resolution
    3840×2160
    Hard Drives
    512GB SSD internal
    37TB external
    PSU
    Li-ion
    Cooling
    2× Arc Flow Fans, 4× exhaust vents, 5× heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Internet Speed
    20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
    Browser
    FF
  • Operating System
    11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Medion S15450
    CPU
    i5 1135G7
    Memory
    16GB DDR4
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe
    Sound Card
    Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
    Screen Resolution
    3840×2160
    Hard Drives
    2TB SSD internal
    37TB external
    PSU
    Li-ion
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Internet Speed
    20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
    Browser
    FF
tony359 said:
That said, this morning for the first time I found the laptop cold. I Hibernated it yesterday. It takes 15s to wake up. I'm fine with that :D
Click to expand...
Only caveat, you first have to thoroughly test it before you can conclude that hibernate is working correctly. It causes Windows stability issues on many occasions, and, even if it does work, it might stop working all of a sudden due to some driver update or Windows update or etc..
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Asus TUF Gaming (2024)
    CPU
    i7 13650HX
    Memory
    16GB DDR5
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile
    Sound Card
    Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
    Screen Resolution
    3840×2160
    Hard Drives
    512GB SSD internal
    37TB external
    PSU
    Li-ion
    Cooling
    2× Arc Flow Fans, 4× exhaust vents, 5× heatpipes
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Internet Speed
    20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
    Browser
    FF
  • Operating System
    11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Medion S15450
    CPU
    i5 1135G7
    Memory
    16GB DDR4
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe
    Sound Card
    Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
    Screen Resolution
    3840×2160
    Hard Drives
    2TB SSD internal
    37TB external
    PSU
    Li-ion
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800
    Internet Speed
    20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
    Browser
    FF
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