Manage Excluded Sites for Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge Microsoft Edge’s Sleeping Tabs feature is designed to save system resources by putting inactive tabs to sleep. While this is helpful for performance, it can cause issues for critical websites or web apps that need to stay active. In this video, we’ll walk through several ways to manage the list of websites excluded from the Sleeping Tabs feature. Before we begin, be sure to subscribe to NinjaOne’s IT video hub and our YouTube channel for more tech content like this. Prerequisites for Excluded Sites in Sleeping Tabs Make sure you’re running Microsoft Edge version 88 or later and Windows 11 or another supported operating system. How to Exclude Sites from Sleeping Tabs in Microsoft Edge We’ll cover four different methods, ranging from simple browser settings to enterprise-level deployment. Method 1 — Using Microsoft Edge Settings Let’s start with the easiest one: through Microsoft Edge settings. Start by navigating to edge://settings/system; then select Performance. Under Never put these sites to sleep, click Add, enter the website URL, and confirm. For example, you might add an internal site like this one: https://intranet.company.local To remove a site, simply click the three dots next to the entry and select Remove. The changes apply immediately, so no restart is required. Method 2 — Using the Registry Editor For more granular control, administrators can use the Windows Registry Editor. Just keep in mind that editing the registry can impact system stability, so always create a backup before proceeding. First, open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press Enter. Then navigate to one of the following paths: this one for the current user, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Polcies\Microsoft\Edge this one for all users, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\Policies\Microsoft\Edge. If the key doesn’t exist, create it. Next, create or edit a string value named SleepingTabsExcludeURLs; then enter your URLs separated by commas or semicolons. Restart Microsoft Edge to apply the changes. Method 3 — Using Command Prompt If you prefer script-based changes, Command Prompt offers a fast way to update exclusions. Simply run Command Prompt as an administrator and execute this command to set exclusions per user: Or execute this one for system-wide deployment: Once you’re done, restart Microsoft Edge to apply the settings. Method 4 — Using PowerShell Lastly, PowerShell is a worthwhile alternative to Command Prompt and is ideal for automation at scale. Just launch PowerShell as an administrator and run this command to apply setting changes to the current user: Or run this one to modify the settings systemwide: When you’re done, restart Microsoft Edge. Overall, Sleeping Tabs can significantly improve performance—but only when configured correctly. By managing excluded websites, you ensure critical applications stay active while still conserving system resources. For more information, check out our official blog post on managing excluded sites in Sleeping Tabs, linked in the description below.