How to Close Laptop and Still Use Monitor on Windows 11

Nothing can beat the convenience and portability of a laptop. However, if you wish to use an external monitor for work purposes or you prefer to consume some content on a screen bigger than your laptop from time to time, you might want to connect it to an external monitor.

Well, the problem lies here, since you will be using the external monitor you most probably wish to close the lid of your laptop, and by default, Windows puts your laptop to sleep if you close the lid. Now, an open laptop sitting on your desk while being connected to an external monitor is not an ideal scenario, not it is pleasant to experience.

Fortunately, you don’t have to make do with this barbaric situation and you can close the lid of your laptop without putting it to sleep or impacting its functioning. So without further ado, let’s get started on it.

Change What Closing the Lid does from Control Panel

You can easily change the function performed by your system when it detects the lid is closed. Moreover, you can also specify to not sleep only when it is plugged in or on battery power making it tailor-fit for your requirement.

To do so, open the Start Menu and type Control. Then from the search results, click on the ‘Control Panel’ tile to open it.

Then, locate and click on the ‘Power Options’ tile from the grid to continue.

After that, on the ‘Power Options’ screen, click on the ‘Choose what closing the lid does’ option situated in the top right section of the window.

Now, locate the ‘When I close the lid’ option and click on the drop-down menu following the option. Then, click to select the ‘Do nothing’ option from the list.

Then, click on the drop-down menu present under the ‘Plugged in’ column and click to select the ‘ Do nothing’ option again if you wish to keep the PC awake even when plugged in.

Finally, click on the ‘Save changes’ button situated in the bottom section of the window to apply the changes immediately.

You can now close the lid of your laptop when connected to an external monitor and use it without any hassle of your PC going to sleep or hibernate.