Windows 11 could have a cool new way to wake your PC

News
By
published

Future touchscreen hardware might get a nifty ‘Wake on Touch’ feature

Surface Pro 7
(Image credit: Future)

Windows 11 could come with a nifty feature for some future devices which would allow the user to wake up from standby simply by touching the display (obviously this would require a touchscreen-equipped piece of hardware).

The idea of ‘Wake on Touch’ is not a new concept, but it’s one more readily associated with phones where you can quickly press the screen to bring it back to life. If this came to a Windows 11 PC, it would work in the same kind of way, allowing for a touch (or double-tap) on the display to wake the device rather than having to press the power button.

Well-known Microsoft leaker Albacore discovered a setting for Wake on Touch in Windows 11, or rather the leaked early build of what should be the successor to Windows 10.

As Windows Central, which spotted the tweet, points out, the settings for Wake on Touch are hidden in the preview build of Windows 11 which is doing the rounds, but they can easily be found (simply by running a search).

Magic ingredient for Surface?

With the feature currently being buried, it might be the case that Microsoft just hasn’t got far enough down the road with work on this capability yet, and when Windows 11 is actually unleashed – theoretically later this year – it’ll come with this functionality live. Either that, or it could be stripped out…

If the former is the route Microsoft is planning on taking, it’s likely that touchscreen hardware would need to be built to specifically support the feature, so it would be for upcoming devices. Maybe Microsoft’s next Surface release?

The latter certainly seems a fair bet, and perhaps the Surface Pro 8 – which is expected to arrive later in 2021 – will run with this concept. This particular range of hybrids has gone stale over the last few iterations, so could do with a bit of magic to revive its perceived standing (even if the rumor mill currently seems to lean more towards the prospect of disappointment with the Pro 8, which could fail to innovate much, yet again).

Darren Allan

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).