I recently got myself a Surface RT and although i love the device, there are some quirks that need ironing out.

One of the most often uses for these devices is playing videos and music, and since Windows RT is pretty aggressive with power management, and admittedly doesn’t have an official youtube app (which means you can’t play all the videos on unofficial ones), the only good option is playing through browser. There are 2 things you can do about this:

1. Play streaming on the desktop version

Desktop version doesn’t get frozen when switching through apps, so you can freely listen to music while doing other things.

2. Create a custom power plan and put a shortcut on start screen

The remaining issue would then be to prevent standby and to do it easy. The best option is to create an additional power plan and put a tile for power management on your start screen:

Go to desktop -> right swipe: control panel -> right click Power options -> Pin to start

You can now go to your start screen and you’ll see a new Power options tile. Arrange it as you see fit. Now you can click it:

After clicking click Create a power plan on the left -> Name it as you like (e.g. Streaming) -> Click next -> set “Put the computer on standby” to never (you can do the same with plugged in, i did it on balanced too) -> Adjust the brightness (i lowered it to the max) -> Click create.

And voila. Now you can change power plan with 2 clicks from the start screen and listen music without interruption. There is also an option to turn off display in advanced power plan options, but it somehow doesn’t work for me (it goes to standby as soon as screen turns off however i set it up).

If you’re listening to youtube a lot you can also pin it to taskbar (I don’t know about pinning to start screen, but i like to separate those 2 anyway, so taskbar is fine). Just open youtube in desktop IE and drag the small icon left of the address in address bar to taskbar. And there you have it, youtube in 2 clicks. And another 2 for changing power plan:). I guess this will server purpose until proper application comes around.

Enjoy!