How to wake up Windows 10 at a specific time at night

If the OS is off (system off, hibernating computer, etc) That is a feature that you shall activate from:
- The computer BIOS
- A remote system (For example, sending a Wake On Land command from other device).

If it is not a deep state, Then you can use the task scheduler to execute the desired program/activity/script/process at the desired time using the option 'Wake the computer to run this task'

Detailed steps of the process here:
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/how-to-set-windows-to-automatically-wake-up-from-sleep/

It is in the 'power save' state that Win 10 has after the time has elapsed.  I could set it to 'never' but this workstation doesn't get used frequently so I wanted to keep it in hibernation unless it was in use.

Will take a look at that link and see if it works tonight.  Thanks!

--Ben

Cool, but if it is hibernating, it will not work. (Here you will require BIOS settings or Wake on Lan for example)

If it is a soft sleep it will.

How do you generate a wake-on-lan signal?  Just try to access its mapped hard drive or similar?

Ben

First, you need to know the mac address of the machine that you want to start. And then you use that mac address as the input of a software from another machine in order to send a 'Start' signal to the computer through the network.

Example steps... (They will vary depending the software that you use).

1. Get the mac address of the computer (You can check the network card properties, or you can use arp -a from a remote computer and read the macs entries table.
Let's say that in this example the mac address is AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF

2. Use a wake on land software (There are many of then in the internet). Usually the input of these commands is the MAC address, or sometimes the IP address as well if it is going to be sent from a different network.
For example, Download 'MC-WOL.EXE', copy it to the computer and then execute:
MC-WOL  AA-BB-CC-DD-EE-FF

Oh!  That's easy enough. Thanks!

By the way, in order that Wake On Land works, you need to ensure that it is enabled in your BIOS. (Must of the computers made during the last years include this feature).

Looked at the task scheduler and tried to configure it to wake the computer.  What I am getting back is "An error has occurred for task wakeup.  Error message: One or more of the specified arguments are not valid".  Am researching that now.

Did find a wake on lan program and ran it after putting the target workstation to sleep.  That didn't seem to accomplish a lot; I saw the power supply fan momentarily turn on (which I suspect means the m/b did get the signal) but it didn't seem to run the task regardless.  I suspect the root cause of these issues I am seeing is the error message above from the task scheduler.

--Ben

Take a simple task, configure it to run only when the user is logged on. Let ut start notepad.exe.
Put the computer into standby and test.
Next, test hibernation.

Sorry for the delay; tried a simple dir command run from a batch file and got the same error. Haven't had time the last couple of days to research further. Tonight looks better.  

Ben

Also try without the wake setting - do tasks work at all?

When the machine is in an active state, yes. The problem I'm seeing is important unable to check on the "wake from sleep mode" checkbox to tell Windows to run it regardless.  I get the error message stated above when I try.

Ben

I can't tell why. I used it before and it works. Could you please retry in a test machine?

I only have one machine that is running Windows 10.  I have numerous other scheduled tasks that run on other Windows 7 workstations. ?

Ben

Install an evaluation copy to a virtual machine.

OH! Doh...  :)

Will have to wait until this evening.

Thanks!

Ben