TIPS & TRICKS: "Randomly" Waking Windows 7 Computer

Awhile back, I noticed my workstation was waking up in the middle of the night. After checking the system logs, I found that there was a Google update service that woke the computer up. I fixed that one. To my surprise, I found my computer on again at 1:41am. Another piece of update software woke up the machine. This useful command helped to confirm my findings in the log:

powercfg -lastwake


Just need to make sure to run it from a command prompt as and administrator:


- Click Start
- Type cmd in the Search programs and files box
- right click cmd under Programs and select "Run as Administrator"


If this line is included in the results after the powercfg -lastwake command is issued:


Windows will execute 'MicrosoftWindowsMedia Centermcupdate_scheduled' scheduled task that requested waking the computer.


Then, here's the fix:


- Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler
- Expand Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Media Center
- Find mcupdate_scheduled (note: make sure to find this one because there's another one called just mcupdate)
- Right click on mcupdate_scheduled and select "Properties".
- Select the Conditions tab
- Uncheck "wake the computer to run this task"

- Hit OK to exit.

Just did this to my workstation and will see if it works. Credit goes to this site:

http://www.beirtech.com/blogs.php?action=view&bid=6