A very simple PowerShell script to keep a Windows PC awake and make lync think the user is active on the keyboard

keepawake.ps1

# Useful references:
#
# https://superuser.com/questions/992511/emulate-a-keyboard-button-via-the-command-line
# https://ss64.com/vb/sendkeys.html
# https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/96b339e2-e9da-4802-a66d-be619aeb21ac/execute-function-one-time-in-every-10-mins-in-windows-powershell?forum=winserverpowershell
# https://learn-powershell.net/2013/02/08/powershell-and-events-object-events/
#
# Future enhancements - use events rather than an infinite loop
$wsh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
while (1) {
  # Send Shift+F15 - this is the least intrusive key combination I can think of and is also used as default by:
  # http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/
  # Unfortunately the above triggers a malware alert on Sophos so I needed to find a native solution - hence this script...
  $wsh.SendKeys('+{F15}')
  Start-Sleep -seconds 59
}

Nevermind! the .exe works just fine. I've recently run into other limitations of Windows Home so I was projecting blame to Home b4 even digging.

Thank you @jheinrichs79

Is keepawake.ps1 intended to work on Windows Home? I got unauthorized error. This work provisioned laptop really sucks!!

File C:\Users\user1\Documents\MyScripts\keepawake.ps1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system. For more information, see about_Execution_Policies at https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170. + CategoryInfo : SecurityError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnauthorizedAccess

p.s. apologies probably not in the correct venue. Stumbled on this thread looking for solution. former programmer but 90's-00s

@noviceboomer - Any time you run any Powershell script you need to make sure your security policies allow for you to run a powershell script. You most likely have a policy that states not to run a public or non-sign script. Google "Set-ExecutionPolicy" and find the setting that will work for you. Also when you download a script from the internet you need to right click it and say that you trust it as it came from an untrusted network (internet).

If you don't want to save anything and need to bypass policy checks, you can just paste the code as a one-liner and run it in a powershell window (so no need for ISE)

$wsh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell; while (1) {$wsh.SendKeys('+{F15}'); Start-Sleep -seconds 59}

and next time you open the shell, just tap arrow up on the keyboard and you can continue where you left off ;)

I've improved somewhat on this. This one liner will run until 4pm (technically, 16:00:59, but still) on the day it's run. Added the AddMinutes in case anyone wants more refined control over end time, though I don't actually use it.

$a = Get-Date; $b = ((Get-Date).Date).AddHours(16).AddMinutes(0); $wsh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell; while ($a -lt $b) {$wsh.SendKeys('+{F15}'); Start-Sleep -seconds 59; $a = Get-Date}

Or, for non one-liner appearances, with some :

# Stop time
param([int]$hours=16)
param([int]$minutes=00)

$a = Get-Date
$b = ((Get-Date).Date).AddHours($hours).AddMinutes($minutes)
$wsh = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
while ($a -lt $b) {
    $wsh.SendKeys('+{F15}')
    Start-Sleep -seconds 59
    $a = Get-Date
}