Date: 2009oct19 OS: Windows Q. How can I ensure Windows doesn't powerdown when my long-running batch script is executing? A. I use the powercfg command to change the power plan during the batch. To see the GUIDs of your power plans. Then you can make a batch file like this:

REM Turn on "high performance" power plan - We don't want it going to sleep during this powercfg -s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c REM Do the thing that will take a long time REM ... blah ... REM Go back to the "balanced" power plan powercfg -s 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e

powercfg was added in Windows 2003.