How to Keep Your Laptop On and Use It When Closed

Lee Stanton November 26, 2023

Have you ever noticed that when you close your laptop, it shuts down or goes into hybrid sleep mode? While this can be a tremendous energy-saving feature, it can also be a big problem, mainly if you connect your laptop to an external monitor to work on something important.

How to Keep Your Laptop On and Use It When Closed

But there’s a way to keep the work going and your laptop on when it’s closed. Keep reading this article, and you will learn how to keep your laptop on when closed on different operating systems and devices.

How to Close a Laptop and Keep It on Using Windows

Windows offers a few options when it comes to choosing what you would like your laptop to do when you close the cover:

Search for “Control Panel” in the Cortana search box.
Click on “Control Panel App” in the results that appear.
Select “Hardware and Sound.”
Click on “Power Options.”
Select “Choose what closing the lid does” on the left side.

Here, you can choose among several options to find what best fits your needs: do nothing, sleep, hibernate, or shut down. You can also choose to set what closing the lid does when your laptop is on battery or plugged in. So, if you want to keep your laptop on, you can easily adjust this setting with just a few clicks.

How to Keep a Laptop on and Close it on Mac

Keeping your laptop on or awake when the lid is closed is easy to enable on Mac. Here is how you can do it.

Click the “Apple” icon in the top left corner.
Choose “System Preferences.”
Click “Energy Saver.”
Select the “Power Adapter” tab.
Set the “Turn display off after:” slider to “Never.”

How to Close a Laptop and Keep It on Using Ubuntu

If you want to keep your laptop on or awake when you close the cover in Ubuntu, you can do it in two different ways. The easiest way is to install an app called Tweaks.

Open a Terminal window, type “sudo apt install gnome-tweak-tool,” then press “Enter.” Type in your password when prompted.
Open the “Tweaks” application.
Select “General” on the left.
Turn off the “Suspend when laptop lid is closed” option.

Note that these instructions will work only if you use “gnome-tweak-tool,” a suite of software tools that work with Ubuntu.

The Terminal is the other way you can enable your laptop to stay on or awake when the cover is closed.

Click the “Apps Launcher” in the bottom-left corner.
Select the “Terminal” app.
Run the following command:
sudo gedit /etc/systemd/logind.conf.
Enter your password and press “Enter.”
After the file opens, look for the line”#HandleLidSwitch=suspend.”
Replace the line with the following:
HandleLidSwitch=ignore

How to Close a Chromebook and Keep It On

You can keep your Chromebook on or awake when you close the lid by following these simple steps:

Click on the “clock” at the bottom right corner.
Select the “gear” icon (settings).
Choose the “Device” setting on the left side.
Select “Power.”
Turn off the “Sleep when lid is closed” option.

After you’ve turned the setting off, you can exit the settings menu, and your changes will be saved automatically.

It’s important to mention that Chromebook doesn’t have the option to separately make adjustments when your laptop is plugged in or running on battery power.

FAQs: Keeping Laptop On While Closed

Can leaving your laptop on when closed damage your laptop?

You may leave your laptop on for many reasons when the cover is closed. While this can be useful when using external monitors or taking a short break from work, it can potentially harm your laptop.

Take a look at the following tips to make sure your laptop doesn’t get damaged.

1. Don’t leave your laptop running for too long. If you keep your laptop on and close the cover, it can happen that you completely forget about it. If this happens often, it can shorten your laptop’s battery life and life.

2. Monitor your laptop’s temperature. The device might overheat if you leave your laptop on and close the cover. Check your laptop’s temperature occasionally to see if it’s working properly, especially if you’re using an older device.

3. Get a laptop cooling pad. If you’re using your laptop as a desktop and notice your device is overheated, you can use a cooling pad to help reduce the temperature.