One of the biggest issues Chrome OS users have to face is the lack of display settings on chromebooks. We can adjust the brightness, but that is about it. Natively, we can’t choose how long these laptops will keep the screen on after being inactive; nor can we choose when it will go to sleep.
This seems like a huge overlook when building any operating system, but Google simply doesn’t feel like it is a priority. And it’s true, most people don’t care for changing these settings. Those of us who do care will simply have to go with our lovely third-party developers for help.
The best way to keep your laptop and screen awake for long periods of inactivity time has been an extension. My favorite happens to be Keep Awake, which allows you to “switch between modes where the screen is kept on, the system is prevented from sleeping, or power-saving settings are left unchanged.”
The Chrome extension simply displays an icon on your extensions bar. It displays a different icon per mode. The moon signifies stock settings, while the sun means your screen will stay on and the sundown image signifies the system won’t go to sleep. You can simply click on the extension to switch modes.
Download Keep Awake
It is really that simple! You can go ahead and download the extension straight from the Chrome Web Store.
Conclusion
We do wish we could customize these settings more. For example, being able to change the settings when the machine is plugged in or not, or being able to choose exactly how long a computer’s screen should stay on.
There is a feature request on Chromium’s reports which you can vote for. If you have been looking for display settings on your Chromebook, your best bet would be to vote for the feature request. Until Google decides to get on this, we will just have to live with extensions like Keep Awake.
