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Windows screen locking after a very short period, unable to change it or even find out where it's set

Anonymous
2023-07-06T01:38:16+00:00

My screen is locking after a very short period, meaning that I have to enter my password if I leave the computer for as little as 5 minutes. Nothing anywhere in my settings seems to indicate why this is happening. The screen timeout settings don't seem to have anything to do with locking the screen (they're all set to Never anyway) and I have not enabled a screen saver.

What's going on and how can I fix this problem so that the screen doesn't lock until something like 60 minutes of inactivity (or preferably NEVER) rather than merely 5 minutes or whatever it is right now? I have no requirement for it to ever lock automatically.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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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  1. Anonymous
    2023-07-10T03:27:11+00:00

    Hi Lebensbild,

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.

    I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

    You need to press Windows Key + R and type gpedit.msc to open the Group Policy Editor if you are using a Windows 10 Professional system, then follow the steps provided by JananiDhana, an independent advisor.

    You can modify the registry as follows if you are using Windows 10 Home Edition:

    Open the Registry Editor and visit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System, create a new 32-bit DWORD Value named InactivityTimeoutSecs, and set the value to 0.

    Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click here to view the article.

    If there is anything not clear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

    Your Sincerely

    Hahn - MSFT | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-07-06T04:06:32+00:00

    Hi, I am Dhanam, here to help you at the Microsoft Community.

    Thank you for your question and reaching out. I can understand you are having query related to Screen lock.

    1 .Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization and select Do not display the lock screen.

    User Configuration-->Administrative Templates--> Control Panel--> "Personalization" folder.
    -->Double-click the "Password protect the screen saver" setting --> Choose the "Disabled" option, click "Apply" and click "OK." The lock screen feature will be disabled.

    Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Interactive Logon : Machine inactivity limit -> Put 0 seconds

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-10T11:03:54+00:00

    That appears to have solved a problem that has been bugging me for a long long time, thanks to the critical bit of information that was missing from the previous post (that I needed to invoke gpedit.msc).

    Many thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-06T04:28:23+00:00

    Thanks but none of those options matches what I see on my system. If I try to ask for Computer Configuration or User Configuration via Windows Start, an Edge window starts up with a lot of what appears to be unusable information.

    Is there something you can give me that matches what I see on my system?

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