v.2004 update removes ability to turn off "Modern Standby"

I've just updated Windows 10 to ver. 2004—and apparently one of the new "features" is that we can no longer choose between standard Sleep mode and "Modern Standby" (formerly known as "InstantGo").

In Sleep mode, everything in your system is turned off except a small trickle of power to RAM, to keep your current session intact.

In Modern Standby, only the display is definitely turned off. USB power stays on (e.g. for charging other devices). On some systems, network connections (including WiFi) are also left on, and updates and file transfers (e.g. email) occur even when the system isn't being used or monitored. Naturally, this drains batter power faster—and in some cases, can create security problems.

I realized this had happened because, after the update, my laptop's cooling pad kept running when I closed its lid. I must now unplug it each time, and be sure I've gone offline beforehand. I haven't seen how it's affected the length of time I can leave my computer in this state—but I assume it won't be as long as I used to be able to.

In the past, we could use this registry hack to turn off Modern Standby. As of v.2004, it doesn't work. The corresponding registry key no longer exists, and if you create it, it has no effect.

Does anyone else feel this is overbearing on the part of Microsoft? And has anyone found a new fix yet?

Ander said:

I've just updated Windows 10 to ver. 2004—and apparently one of the new "features" is that we can no longer choose between standard Sleep mode and "Modern Standby" (formerly known as "InstantGo").

It may be relevant that the current build of 2004 released publicly still seems to have some 'Insider' tags in it. Some features are deliberately disabled for Insiders, but should be re-enabled before the RTM release. Sometime this get missed and may not get corrected by a cumulative for months after release.

The RTM version of 2004 as released by MS on 27 May appears to still be configured as an Insider build. This was spotted by CliffS here.

Cliff S said:

An interesting find.
On all my PC's that were updated using an ISO created with MCT, show up in AIDA64 as Insider Preview builds

Try3 said:

Some time ago [Ver 1903] Zacpod reported in Reddit that this Registry key had to be deleted

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ModernStandby

which I believe is now called

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\ModernSleep

This was in addition to setting this value to 0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
CsEnabled

Denis

I appreciate your replies—however, the CsEnabled "hack" is the one I referred and linked to in my OP above.

My registry had no ModernSleep value, in that key or elsewhere. I tried creating one (with value 0) and rebooting; it had no effect.

It's easy enough to see which sleep states are available by entering pwrconfig /a at an elevated (Administrator) command prompt. Mine says:



I've underlined the relevant items.

S0 ("Low Power Idle") is Modern Standby. "Network Disconnected" means that on my system, network connections are not left on when the lid is closed. You may not be as lucky.

Try3 said:

I know. I posted in order to draw your attention to the suggestion that another item must also, apparently, be altered.

Fair enough!

Try3 said:

ModernSleep is a key not a value.

Ah, sorry... I should've assumed you peeps knew the difference between a key and a value.

My registry does have a ModernSleep key, but I hesitate to delete it, as I've just read in this exchange:

I dont recommend disabling modern standby, because unfortunately, the XPS 9570 has a catastrophic bug after waking up from S3. It is a long story, I wish more people would know about this, but no one seems to care. I posted about this everywhere, but no one cares. Dell doesnt want to fix it btw. I would buy another laptop.

Try3 said:

I have no other suggestions. If you do ever find a reliable method then please post back...

Sure will!

Try3 said:

I also found several discussions in the Dell forums on the subject but they were not encouraging either.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of leafing through pages of "Hey, I'm having this problem too!" replies.

Try3 said:

My own S0 computer is not a Dell but a Chuwi Hi10 Pro. Its Bios is unintelligible & its support imaginary.

I love hanging out with fellow geeks who aren't shy about going into such detail about their systems... Regular peeps just don't get it, do they?