Locking desktop - keyboard shortcuts

Question

Locking desktop - keyboard shortcuts

Anonymous

i tried assigning the keyboard shortcut to lock my surface pro (windows key + L) to the 4-finger gesture of swiping towards myself, but nothing happens when i swipe. then i created a shortcut on my desktop that did the same (lock my surface pro) and assigned a separate shortcut for that, and even that did not work for the gesture. is there any way i can make a touchpad gesture that locks my windows?

Update:

For anyone else looking to do this, here's how:

Right click anywhere on the home screen of your desktop
Click "New", then "Shortcut"
For location, copy and paste the following. "C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation" then click "Next"
Name the shortcut "Lock" and click "Done"
Now right click on the new shortcut and click "Properties"
Under "Shortcut Key", assign the keys (Ctrl + Alt + L)
Now open settings, click "Bluetooth and Devices"
Scroll down and click "Touchpad", then click on "Advanced Gestures"
Under "Configure four-finger gestures" click "Swipe Down" and choose the option "Custom Shortcut"
Click "Start Recording" and hold the keys (Ctrl + Alt + L)

Now enjoy being able to lock your computer by swiping towards yourself with four fingers!

If you need any help with this, feel free to reply to this thread and I will reply as soon as possibly.

-Della

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Answer accepted by question author

4 additional answers

Answer 1

Thanks for keeping us posted, Delcrxft.

I reproduced your issue on my end and it appears that this is indeed a limitation of feature. There is no gesture on the touchpad available to lock the screen of the device.

We totally understand how important this set up for you which is we highly recommend you to Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app. In this way, our engineers could look into this and may consider adding this feature in the future.

I hope this answers your concern.

Best regards,

StevenK

Answer 2

Anonymous

I tested it the other day and it seems to work perfectly, not sure what the cause was but thank you for the help it is very much appreciated!

Also so sorry for the incredibly late reply, the last few days have been very busy for me but thank you again.

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Answer 3

Anonymous

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our last response. We would like to know if you still need assistance with your concern. If yes, kindly reply back so we can further assist you.

Hope to hear from you.

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Answer 4

in terms of the gesture limits, you can assign custom commands using keyboard shortcuts, for example i added a keyboard shortcut to opening Google Chrome, then I added the shortcut to swiping away from me with 4 fingers and it does open Chrome; so I'm not sure why any form of locking the system wont work.

I'm updated to the newest version of windows (windows 11) on a Surface Pro 7

Answer 5

Hello Delcrxft,

Thanks for reaching Microsoft Community. We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. We'll do our best to help.

We may need to gather more information for us to better understand your concern.

May I know what version of Windows your device has?
Were you able to make this settings before?

I'd like to inform you that gestures on the touchpad may only be limited to do things like scroll up and down, zoom in, and select items. In the meantime, please see Surface touchpad use and settings (microsoft.com) and Touch gestures for Windows (microsoft.com) for more details.

I hope this helps. Feel free to respond on this thread to keep us posted.

Kind regards,

StevenK

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Locking desktop - keyboard shortcuts

4 additional answers