Microsoft Surface tables are often used for events or in an office, for purposes of presentation. The lamp has a life quite limited and a concern for energy saving, it's best to establish an automatic start and stop so you do not be concerned with turning off the table before leaving weekend.
Here are the steps to set up this solution:
- Enable Wake On LAN on Surface
- Modify the BIOS password
- Change settings of the network card
- Create a scheduled task to shutdown the table
Enable Wake On LAN on Surface
The first thing to do is to contact Microsoft Surface support for the password to the BIOS of your Surface, you will find the number in the documents of the yellow envelope that came with the table.
Once the password in your possession, connect a keyboard and mouse to the table and turn it on. Press Delete key to enter the BIOS. A screen asks you to enter a password:
Enter the password provided by the Microsoft Surface support. Be careful, the keyboard is configured as QWERTY.
Go to the menu Power - APM Configuration:
Enable the settings Power On By PCI Devices:
and Power On By PCIE Devices:
Modify the BIOS password
By obtaining the password to the BIOS of your Surface, you will understand it is not related to a particular table because we do not ask you the serial number of the table. That is why it is better to change it.
Go to the menu Boot - Security:
Select Change Supervisor Password:
and enter the new password in the window that opens:
A confirmation of the password will be required and you can then save and close the BIOS.
Change settings of the network card
The next step is to allow the network card to wake the computer. Log on as administrator on the table, go to Control Panel and then start the Device Manager:
Open the Network adapters node and then on the context menu for the network card (here is Intel (R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection), click Properties:
Tick the box Allow this device to wake the Computer and click the OK button to save and close the window:
Open the Command Prompt:
and enter the command ipconfig / all. Locate your network card previously configured and note its MAC address (it will be useful to send the magic packet):
Create a scheduled task to shutdown the table
Open the scheduled task manager (Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Task Scheduler):
Open the node context menu on Task Scheduler Library and select Create Task...:
Configure the General tab for the task is executed with a user who is administrator of the table, with elevated privileges and be logged or not:
In the Triggers tab add the time the task should be triggered. Here is an example for a shutdown every day at 06:30 PM:
In the Actions tab, create a new action calling the shutdown.exe program and passing parameters -s -f -t 00 as follows:
The -s parameter specifies to turn the computer off, the -f force the closure of current programs and the -t 00 parameter specifies a timeout of 0 seconds. You can get more info by typing shutdown /? in a command line.
The two remaining tabs, Conditions and Settings keep their default settings:
Click on the OK button to validate the task. The password for the account who will execute the task is asked.
The task appear now into the list.
You have just to create a scheduled task according to your needs to send the magic packet and wake up the table.
Thank you to Chafik without whom nothing would have been possible ;-)