Microsoft Is Reinventing How Laptops Go on Standby

For some, a laptop's standby feature is a fantastic way to put the device to sleep while you move it from one place to another; for others, it's something you accidentally click when you're trying to turn it off. Whichever camp you're in, you should check out Microsoft's new plans for the standby function which makes it a lot more useful than before.

How the New Standby Feature Works

This news comes to us from Windows Latest, which wrote a report on the new feature.

First of all, it's worth noting that this feature is coming to something called "Windows 10X," which is a little different from Windows 10. It's a new operating system that Microsoft is designing specifically for dual-screen devices, but it's also planned for single-screen mobile devices.

Windows 10X is a brand new version of Windows 10—so new that it's not fully released at the time of writing. It's due to fully ship out in March-July 2021. Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn't revealed much about 10X, but there are little snippets of information that tell us what the new OS will be like.

Windows 10X is set to contain some fancy new features, and one of these is called "Modern Standby." It works a little differently than regular standby, as it allows the laptop to continue updating itself, download emails, and churn through large files while in a low power state.

This is very similar to what we see in modern-day mobile and gaming devices. Both of these allow you to put the device in a low-power state while it keeps itself updated. Now, it seems that Microsoft wants this same functionality for laptops, too.

If Windows 10X is a huge success for laptops, we may see the last of turning off your laptop completely. Instead, you can open up your laptop in the morning and see all the updates, emails, and news right-away, ready for the day.

A New Era for Windows Laptops?

With Windows 10X, Microsoft wants devices to keep themselves updated in a low-power state, retrieving emails and updates while you're away. While this sounds promising, we'll have to wait until mid-2021 to see if it can live up to the expectation.

While you wait for Windows 10X to roll out, there are ways to put a regular Windows 10 into a pseudo-rest state. For instance, you can set it so that a Windows 10 laptop doesn't turn off the screen or go to sleep when you close the lid.

Image Credit: faithie / Shutterstock.com

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