Today is the twenty-first day of Diduary. You can see links to all of the published articles in the series here.

I don’t know how much you’ll need this at work, but for my home PC, this has become an invaluable tip. Every time I walk past my home office, I apparently shake the floor enough to move my mouse slightly, which in turn wakes up my machine.

So every time I walk past my office, my machine spins up. Which turns my monitors back on, which makes the room light up. When I’m on my way to bed, that’s an annoying feature. I actually got to the point where I was unplugging my mouse at the end of the day. That is, until I discovered this little tip.

You can actually disable this nice little “feature” in the properties of your mouse.

Start with your mouse properties, by opening your Windows search box and typing “mouse.”

Once you’ve done that, you need to choose the properties for the mouse you’re working with. When you do that, you’ll need to choose the “Power Management” tab. (Some of you may find that you don’t have this tab. Blame it on your drivers. Try updating those.) Here’s a look at the Power Management tab:

By checking the box that reads “Allow the device to wake this computer,” you’re all set! Keep in mind, this will mean you need to tap your keyboard to wake your machine. I recommend the Shift key. Many other keys could effect the application that had focus before your machine fell asleep. (Thanks to a commenter for the recommendation.)

Happy sleeping!