Can you Remote Desktop if PC is asleep?

Sleep, shut down, log out, or restart a computer with Remote Desktop

You can put a client computer to sleep, shut it down, or restart it. You can also log out a user.

Put a computer to sleep

When a computer is put to sleep, the display sleeps, any physical hard disks spin down, and the computer goes into a low-power mode.

Unless theres a Bonjour sleep proxy running on the other network subnets, you cant wake computers on a different subnet.

  1. In Remote Desktop

    Can you Remote Desktop if PC is asleep?
    , select a computer list in the sidebar of the main window, select one or more computers, then choose Manage > Sleep.

  2. Click Sleep.

Wake up a computer

You can wake computers from sleep. To wake a computer, it must meet these requirements:

  • The computers networking hardware must support waking by using a network packet (wakeonlan).

  • The Wake for network access option must be selected in Energy Saver preferences.

The label of the Wake for network access option may differ, depending on the capabilities of the computer.

You can wake computers connected to the network using Wi-Fi. Send the following UNIX command to see if a Mac supports wireless Wake on Demand:

system_profiler SPAirPortDataType | grep "Wake On Wireless"

To wake computers that arent on your local subnet, do the following:

  1. In the Remote Desktop window, select a computer list, select one or more sleeping or offline computers, then choose Manage > Wake.

  2. Click Wake.

Log out the current user

Log out a user to return the computer to the login window. Depending on what apps are open on the client computer, unsaved work may stop the logout process.

  1. In Remote Desktop

    Can you Remote Desktop if PC is asleep?
    , select a computer list in the sidebar of the main window, select one or more computers, then choose Manage > Log Out Current User.

  2. Click Log Out.

Restart a computer

You can restart a client computer.

Unless the client supports lights-out management (LOM), you can restart it only if its current status is Available.

  1. In Remote Desktop

    Can you Remote Desktop if PC is asleep?
    , select a computer list in the sidebar of the main window, select one or more computers, then choose Manage > Restart.

  2. Select the type of restart, then click Restart.

Shut down a computer

You can shut down a client computer. The Shut Down command is useful when used with Energy Saver preferences. You can set your client computers to start up in the morning, and use Remote Desktop to shut them down at night. The next morning, theyll start up and be ready to administer.

  1. In Remote Desktop

    Can you Remote Desktop if PC is asleep?
    , select a computer list in the sidebar of the main window, select one or more computers, then choose Manage > Shut Down.

  2. Select the type of shutdown, then click Shut Down.