How to make Windows XP sleep after I press Win+S?

Question

Nothing happens for shortcut key Win + S to make Windows XP sleep. Is there a light-weight tool for exactly this job?

Answer 1

Lightweight solution: Hit the windows key (opens start menu), hit U (selects shutdown menu), and then hit S (selects standby mode,) and then hit enter (initiates standby).

Or, if you simply must have it bound to a single key, you could get AutoHotKey and then bind that combination to a single key. It's a small program but i wouldn't describe it as "lightweight." I also have never used it, just heard good things about it.

There's also a thread on pcguide.com which describes creating a suspend shortcut. And you can set hotkeys for shortcuts natively in XP. But again, I've never tried this solution.

Answer 2

You can use NirCmd to create a shortcut on your desktop (NirCmd.exe Standby) you can right click on it, choose properties, and there should be a spot there somewhere for a hotkey. This hotkey doesn't work too well for me though, so instead I used AutoHotKey and put this into the AutoHotKey.ahk:

#s::nircmd.exe Standby

This implies, of course, that you copied nircmd.exe to C:\Windows\System32. Then set the file to run at Startup by copying it to the Startup folder in the All Programs menu of the Start Menu.