Windows 11 closing apps in sleep mode

Question

Hello, I've noticed that Windows 11 closes apps in sleep mode, which I do not want happening. I remember in previous systems, it saved all apps (restartable or not). I want to ask, if there is a solution to this? Sometimes I walk away from my computer for too long and all my progress in the apps I had opened is lost.

I've tried:

• Going to the troubleshooting tab in settings. There is no "Power" option, even in the "other" tab.
• Turning on "automatically save my restartable apps and restart them when I sign back in". It does not save all apps.
• The command "powercfg –h off" in Windows PowerShell. It does not work for me.

I've also seen a person recommend to replace all sleep options with hibernate, but it's not what I want. I just want my apps saved after signing back in after my laptop was in sleep mode. Is there a fix?

Answer 1

Hi Iga,

Based on your description, Windows should normally keep your applications open while the device is asleep. If you're returning to find that all apps have been closed and unsaved work is lost, it may indicate that the PC is restarting, shutting down or encountering a problem while transitioning into or out of sleep mode.

I can see that an Independent Advisor has already requested some diagnostic information. When you have a chance, please follow those steps and share the requested files:

• Open Event Viewer and save the System log as an .evtx file.
• Open msinfo32 and provide a screenshot of the System Information window.

As an additional troubleshooting step, please try disabling Fast Startup:

1. Open Control Panel > Power Options.
2. Select Choose what the power buttons do.
3. Click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
4. Uncheck Turn on fast startup.
5. Save the changes and restart your PC.

It would also be helpful if you could run the following command from an elevated Command Prompt and share the results:

powercfg /a

This will show which sleep states are supported on your device and may help determine whether the issue is related to Modern Standby or another power-management feature.

Feel free to share the requested information when convenient and we'll take a closer look.

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Answer 2

Seems your PC turns off instead of sleep.

Right-click Start, select Event Viewer, expand Windows at the left and select System journal.

Right-click on System and select "Save…" to get evtx file. Do not use any filtering, informational events may be meaningful too. Share this file to OneDrive for analysis.

Show a screenshot of built-in msinfo32 tool.