Stop Chrome (or any app) from preventing Screen Locking and/or Screen Saver

A minor problem that has plagued me for some time, I would be done for the day, leave the home office, and yet hours later all 4 screens were still left on. I hate paying for the power to leave my screens on all night plus the fact it reduces the screens longevity. Most importantly, its a security issue. I want my computer to lock when I am not at it. Many times I press Win+L to lock but sometimes I forget.

I generally leave my security cams up on the top screen, and I was fairly sure Chrome has a way of telling Windows to not go to sleep because media was playing. Well, I was right.

Detecting the Issue

Simply run this command to see what is holding up the system:

powercfg /requests

Notice there under DISPLAY: that Chrome is playing video?

The Fix

The block Chrome from preventing the computer from sleeping simply run this command (change it from chrome to another app name if its not chrome):

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS chrome.exe awaymode display system

Enjoy,

-Eric

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