Viewing and setting the display turn off time using powercfg

You can view the current setting for a Microsoft Windows system to turn off the attached screen by typing "power settings" in the Windows "Type here to search" field and selecting "Power & sleep settings".

Settings on a desktop system running Windows 10

Alternatively, you can see the current screen timeout power off settings from a command-line interface (CLI) using the command powercfg /query SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE from a PowerShell or command prompt window.

C:\>powercfg /query SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE
Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e  (Balanced)
  GUID Alias: SCHEME_BALANCED
  Subgroup GUID: 7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99  (Display)
    GUID Alias: SUB_VIDEO
    Power Setting GUID: 3c0bc021-c8a8-4e07-a973-6b14cbcb2b7e  (Turn off display after)
      GUID Alias: VIDEOIDLE
      Minimum Possible Setting: 0x00000000
      Maximum Possible Setting: 0xffffffff
      Possible Settings increment: 0x00000001
      Possible Settings units: Seconds
    Current AC Power Setting Index: 0x00000258
    Current DC Power Setting Index: 0x0000012c


C:\>

Query Parameters

• SCHEME_CURRENT: Targets your currently active Windows power plan (such as Balanced or High Performance) without needing to look up its unique ID code.
• SUB_VIDEO: Specifies the Power Configuration subgroup responsible for managing your video playback, display settings, and monitor hardware.
• VIDEOIDLE: Controls the specific system timer that tracks how long the computer has been completely idle before cutting power to the display.

Output Values

• Power Scheme GUID: The first line Power Scheme GUID: 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e (Balanced) provides the Windows globally unique identifier (GUID), which is stored in the Windows registry, for the power scheme.
• GUID Alias: The value of SCHEME_BALANCED indicates that the active power plan is the standard Windows Balanced scheme.
• Subgroup GUID: provides the GUID for the display.
• GUID Alias: the alias for the above GUID, VIDEOIDLE.
• Minimum Possible Setting: the minimum value that can be used, i.e., zero. The value is a hexadecimal value, which the 0x at the beginning of the number indicates. Setting the value to 0 is equivalent to "never", though, meaning the screen is never turned off.
• Maximum Possible Setting: the maximum value that you can specify, also in hexadecimal, with the value of 0xffffffff essentially indicating an unlimited amount of time.
• AC Power Setting Index: the number of seconds before the screen is turned off when the system is plugged into an alternating current (AC) outlet.

  You can convert a hexadecimal number to decimal or vice versa using the Windows Calculator provided by Microsoft with its Windows operating system, if you switch from the "Standard" display for that calculator to "Programmer", which you can do by clicking on the hamburger button, i.e., the 3 short horizontal bars at the upper, left-hand corner of the window, and selecting "Programmer". You can then select "HEX" and use the keypad for the calculator to enter hexadecimal values, e.g., 258 in the above output. You will then see the equivalent decimal value in the "DEC" field. In this case, the decimal value is 600, so converting 600 seconds to minutes equals 10 minutes.

  

• DC Power Setting Index: the number of seconds before the screen is turned off when the system is running on direct current (DC), e.g., from battery power in the case of a laptop. For the system on which the command was run, which was a desktop computer, the setting would have no impact. In the example above, the value is 12c, which is 300 in decimal, a number that equates to 5 minutes (5 * 60).

A value of zero for either of the above indexes indicates that Windows will keep the screen on permanently. You can set the values from a command prompt with a powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE x and powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE y where x and y are decimal values in seconds. E.g., to change the Plugged In timeout to 15 minutes (900 seconds), you could use the command powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE 900 and powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE 600 to change the On Battery value to 10 minutes (600 seconds). You then need to issue the command powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT to apply any changes you have made.

Related articles:

1. Changing PC sleep setting under Windows 10
   Date: June 20, 2016