Wake-on-LAN with Windows 7

[enjay]

The Windows 7 PC in my office doesn't respond to the WOL signals which go out. Since the connectivity light on the switch goes out when the PC is off, I'm guessing this is a power management feature, although it worked fine with XP and Vista on this PC. This isn't an issue for just one PC in my office, however could present problems on other PCs around the school. Does anyone know how to use WOL with Windows 7?

[Ric_]

I've also noticed that power management defaults on Windows 7 seem to turn off networking in standby (and I guess 'off') power modes.

 

I think it's probably the PCI Express settings that do it... these can be found under 'Advanced' in the Power Management settings. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that these can also be changed via a GPO.

[enjay]

I think it's probably the PCI Express settings that do it... these can be found under 'Advanced' in the Power Management settings.

 

PCI Express - Link State Power Management: currently set to "moderate power savings", other options are "maximum power savings" and "off". Is that the bit you mean?

[AngryTechnician]

This is curious, because I did not have to do anything to get WOL to work on my Windows 7 machines other than enable it in the BIOS as usual. I certainly did not have to edit any of the power settings from their defaults.

 

Have you tried updating the network card driver? I have noticed some of the bundled drivers with 7 are actually quite dated and may not be providing the full feature set.

[enjay]

I've just searched from within Device Manager, and it reckons my drivers (dated Oct 2008) are up-to-date.

[nibulon]

I've just setup a windows 7 test machine this week myself - both wake on lan and psshutdown worked fine for me with no tinkering with drivers and settings, using the same .exe's i use on the production XP domain.