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For Dashboards

Keep a dashboard screen switched on

AwakeTab keeps a dashboard screen on as long as AwakeTab itself is visible on a display of that computer: in a small window beside the dashboard, side by side, or on another monitor attached to the same machine. Send the wall screen a link with ?autostart=1 and it starts itself when the page loads; Safari and iPad need one tap the first time. Keep the device plugged in.

Sources checked Saturday, 26 September 20264 min readBy Soubhik Biswas
Try it hereTry itStart a session, switch tabs, then come back and watch the pill. No end time: it keeps the screen on until you stop it.Start this session

Make the wall screen start itself

  1. Choose ∞ and a quiet face.Pick Minimal or Clock mode (below). To let the screen sleep out of hours, use "Until…" with a time such as 6:00 PM instead.
  2. Copy a link that starts itself.Open Share, turn on "Start automatically" and copy the link. It ends in ?autostart=1 and carries the length you chose.
  3. Open that link when the wall computer starts.Set the browser to open it at start-up. After a reload, AwakeTab restores its session.

What to expect from across the room

In Chrome and Edge the session starts as soon as the page loads. Safari and iPad need one tap the first time, because Safari asks for a recent tap before it will keep a screen on.

The pill at the top of the tool tells you what the browser is doing:

Screen awake
With a running time, the display is being kept on.
Paused — tab hidden
Something, such as a full-screen dashboard, covers AwakeTab. Uncover it and AwakeTab asks again.
Blocked — here's the fix
The browser refused, for example because the page is embedded in a frame whose policy blocks wake locks. The card shows the fix.

Put AwakeTab where the browser can see it

A dashboard in full screen (F11) on the same monitor covers it. Three layouts work:

  • A small window in a corner. Resize AwakeTab to a strip at the edge. An unfocused window still counts if nothing covers it.
  • Side by side. Snap the dashboard to one side and AwakeTab to the other.
  • Another monitor on the same computer. AwakeTab on the laptop screen, the dashboard on the big display. The display timeout is shared, so both stay lit.

On a Chromebook driving a wall screen, closing the lid sleeps it unless "Sleep when cover is closed" is turned off, and a managed Chromebook may not let you change that. Keep a Chromebook screen on has the steps.

Choose a quiet face

Minimal is a dim screen with a small elapsed time, so AwakeTab doesn't compete with your charts. Clock shows the time in large numerals, handy where people also glance for the time.

Power and the panel

A screen lit all day needs mains power. In Chrome and Edge, AwakeTab can stop itself at a battery level you pick, which protects a laptop someone unplugged.

OLED and some LCD panels can keep a faint image of anything that sits still for weeks. AwakeTab shifts its own face by a couple of pixels every minute, but it can't move your dashboard, so use the panel's screen-care settings or rotate between views.

Many screens, or a lobby

For a reception screen, a shop or a row of wall displays, the Kiosk licence adds your logo. It costs $19 once for one site or $49 for five, where a site is one location with any number of screens. AwakeTab is not a kiosk browser: it doesn't lock the device down or launch itself, so pair it with your operating system's kiosk mode.

Before you leave it on the wall

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Questions

Usually, yes. The display timeout on Windows and macOS covers every screen attached to the computer, so AwakeTab on the small laptop screen keeps the big monitor lit too. A monitor that powers down on its own when the signal drops is using its own setting and needs changing on the monitor.

Soubhik Biswas · Builds AwakeTab. Sources checked Saturday, 26 September 2026. About AwakeTab