This is how I have my PC set up so I can turn it on remotely

The Wake-on-Lan or WoL function allows you to turn on a computer remotely, without having to press the power button. An interesting thing is that almost all modern computers natively offer this function, but nobody knows about it.

Simply put, we can turn on our computer via the Internet. We can send a “message” to our PC from anywhere to start it up. Whether it’s to have it running when we get home, because we need to access it remotely, or for any other reason.

Configure BIOS to enable Wake-on-Lan

To enable this feature you have to type a bit and perform a series of actions. They are not particularly complex and we will leave them detailed for you, so that you can follow the steps calmly. The first step is to activate this feature in the BIOS and it is done as follows:

1. On the Windows login screen, press the power button in the lower right corner.
2. Now, hold down the “Shift” key and click on restart. If you get a message that says “Restart anyway” say yes.
3. The computer now boots into the Windows Recovery Environment.
4. Now click on the “Troubleshoot” option.
5. Next, we go to the “Advanced Options” section and, finally, to the “UEFI Firmware Configuration”.
6. It will not boot into the BIOS which may look different. Look for the “Settings” section and you will have an option that says “Wake-On-Lan”.
7. We press “Enter” and in the menu we must select the “Enabled” option.
8. Press F10 to save and exit.

Let the computer boot normally, logging in as you have been doing for years. It is a slow and tedious process, but it is worth it.

Enable WoL feature in Windows 11

The next step is to activate this feature within the Microsoft operating system. To do this, simply follow these steps:

1. Press the key combination «Windows + X»
2. Now go to the “Device Manager” section.
3. Expand the “Network adapters” option, which will be one of the first.
4. Right click on the network card, which will usually be from RealTek.
5. Within the menu we must go to the “Properties” option.
6. A window opens and we access “Advanced Options”.
7. We are looking for the WoL option, which will be one of the last to receive the name “Wake o magic packet”.
8. We changed its status to “Activated”.
9. Now let’s go to the “Power Management” tab
10. We make sure that the options “Allow this device to wake the computer” and “Allow only a magic packet to wake the computer” are activated and close.
11. Now we press the Windows + R key combination.
12. We write on the window cmd and then we click on “Accept” so that the Command prompt.
13. We must now write this text: ipconfig
14. Write on a paper the IPv4 address.

You can close this window and any other windows you have open at this point.

Disable fast startup

Next, we will disable the fast startup feature that is normally enabled by default. This ensures that the network adapter works even in a low power state. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Type “Control” in the Windows search bar and open the “Control Panel.”
2. Now let’s go to the “Power Options” section.
3. In the left column we must click on “Choose what closing the lid does”.
4. Next, click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable.”
5. In the “Shutdown settings” section, we have to uncheck “Activate fast startup” and save the changes.

Use WakeMeOnLan to turn on your PC

We will need some additional software that is fairly easy to use in order to start the system remotely. The steps are as follows:

1. Download WakeMeOnLan from its official website.
2. We extract the files wherever it floats our boat the most.
3. Next, we need to run the program.
4. We press the lime green “Play” button to detect the IP addresses of our network.
5. We right click on our IP (which must be the same one we noted previously).
6. Within the menu we select the first option which is “Wake Up Selected Computers”.

Generate power on/off shortcuts

So far we have seen the easy part, now comes a more complex and, above all, tedious part. We must generate a series of shortcuts to be able to turn the PC on and off remotely. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Right click anywhere on the empty Windows desktop.
2. Within the menu, choose the “New” option and in the submenu the “Shortcut” option.
3. Next, click on the “Browse” button and find where you have the WakeMeOnLan executable.
4. Before continuing you must leave a space, add “/wakeup» (without the quotes) a space and enter your IPv4 address (the one you wrote down on the paper earlier).
5. Type a name for the shortcut, whatever you want, and finish.
6. Again, let’s repeat the steps to create a new shortcut.
7. Now what we need to write is the following: shutdown /s /m \PC_NAME. You must replace “PC_NAME” with the name of your computer.
8. Click Next and give this shortcut a new name, then click Finish.

Now you are ready to start a computer from any other PC quickly and without moving. However, keep in mind that both systems must be on the same network.