Stop system entering 'standby'

Question

How can i stop the host machine entering standby mode while my application is running?

Is there any win32 api call to do this?

Answer 1

There are two APIs, depending on what version of Windows.

XP,2000, 2003:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373247(VS.85).aspx

Respond to PBT_APMQUERYSUSPEND.

Vista, 2008:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373208(VS.85).aspx

There could be many valid reasons to prevent the computer from going to sleep. For example, watching a video, playing music, compiling a long running build, downloading large files, etc.