This post tells you how to remap a the “pause” key to “sleep” if your keyboard does not have a “sleep” key. This is really useful because there is no easy keyboard shortcut in Windows 11 to send your computer to sleep.
- Install PSTools
- Install Autohotkeys
- create a this file
#sleep-on-pause.ahk
#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0
Pause::
{
Run "C:{path to to psshutdown here}\psshutdown.exe -d -t 0"
}
- Put it in your startup folder
- Windows + R > shell:startup
When you reboot the “Pause” key will now run PSTools and send your laptop to sleep.
Testing tip – give things time to happen
When testing allow at least 60s after logging in before pressing the Paus” button. This is because experiment shows that start-up scripts run after all the other Windows login activities. After you press the Pause button the computer screen will go black after a couple of seconds but it is not asleep yet. Wait at least 60s before trying to wake your computer.