From the Start menu, click Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Power Options. Select Change Plan Settings for the power plan you use. Select Change Advanced Power Settings. Scroll to the Multimedia settings option and expand it. Expand When Sharing Media. Select allow the computer to enter Away Mode. Scroll to the Sleep option and expand it. Expand Sleep after and set to 0 minutes. Note: you may see "Plugged in" and "On battery" in this section, so choose the former. Select Allow hybrid sleep and set to Off. Select Hibernate after and set to 0 minutes. Again, choose only "Plugged in." Press OK and reboot your PC.

By the way, this is applicable only to systems running Windows 7.

Also, this mode is useful for allowing an otherwise idle PC to share media with remote devices -- like, say, an Xbox. Good stuff.

I'll report back if I encounter any issues with this; here's hoping you'll do the same. But if my hassle-free PC senses are correct, this should afford a perfect middle ground between sleep mode and full-steam functionality.

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