How to disable both lock and sign-in screen?

Question

Hello,

Alright, to start off, what a time-consuming nightmare it is to get a new laptop and try to personalise Windows settings. No, I don't want my laptop to be signed in all the time, No I don't want Microsoft to peer over everything I do on my laptop, etc... I followed a link from support.microsoft promising to help me FINALLY remove the lock screen and sign-in screen and instead of answers I find a place to post a question. Very well. It took me two hours looking for a way to remove both lock and sign-in screens, but:

• regedit-hkey_local_machine-personalisation-NoLockScreen does not work
• netplwiz - option 'Users must enter a user name etc' is not there
• there is no Group Policy

I'll only add it is a HP 14 laptop with Windows 11 Home.

Please, is there a way to remove the lock and sign-in screen? Thank you.

Answer 1

Hi Me,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A!

I completely understand the frustration of looking for and trying all possible online suggestions to remove the lock screen and sign‑in screen, only to see them persist. I know you've spent hours so to not waste you more time, I’ll be direct:

There is currently no supported way to fully disable both the lock screen and the sign‑in screen on Windows 11 Home.

The only path to achieve this would be through advanced customizations, by modifying boot configurations on Windows installer. However, these methods are not recommended by Microsoft and can introduce serious risks.

The lock and sign‑in process are intentionally built to protect your PC and your data. That’s why there isn’t an official option to bypass or remove them entirely. Although, I do have a workaround that you can consider:

1. On your Windows, open Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options:
   1. Remove all Windows Hello (if any)
   2. Make sure Dynamic lock feature is unchecked
   3. If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again? > Never.
2. Still in Settings, go to System > Power & battery > Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts:
   1. Set Make my device sleep after to the maximum value (e.g., Never)
   2. If you don't want your screen to turn off, also set it to maximum.
   3. Apply these settings for both Plugged in and On battery

Of course, this won’t remove the lock or sign‑in screen when you first power on your PC. But if you’re okay with avoiding them after stepping away and returning, this setup may help make the experience smoother.

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Answer 2

In settings, what have you selected for the computer to do when you close the lid?

Using Start, you can put your laptop to sleep. See example image below.

Have you read the User Manual for your laptop?

Answer 3

On Windows 11 Home, both the lock screen and the sign-in screen are core security components and cannot be fully removed in a supported way. However, there are two relevant behaviors that can be adjusted, depending on the edition and scenario:

1. Suppressing the lock screen (IoT/Enterprise scenarios)
   In specialized Windows IoT/Enterprise deployments, the lock screen can be suppressed using the NoLockScreen registry value under:

      Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization" /v NoLockScreen /t REG_DWORD /d 1
   

   This is part of the Custom Logon and Device Lockdown feature set and is intended for kiosk/embedded devices, not standard Windows 11 Home PCs. These features require enabling Client-DeviceLockdown and Client-EmbeddedLogon and are not available on Home:

      Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Client-DeviceLockdown /featurename:Client-EmbeddedLogon
   

   Even in those scenarios, this is for managed, specialized images and not a general consumer configuration.
2. Custom Logon / hiding logon UI elements (Enterprise/IoT)
   Custom Logon can suppress Windows UI elements on the Welcome and shutdown screens (for example, power, language, ease of access buttons) and hide animations, but it does not remove the requirement to sign in:
   • Disable logon screen UI elements via UIVerbosityLevel and related values.
   • Hide branding, auto-logon UI, and first-logon animation:

          Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon" /v BrandingNeutral /t REG_DWORD /d 1
          Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon" /v HideAutoLogonUI /t REG_DWORD /d 1
          Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Embedded\EmbeddedLogon" /v HideFirstLogonAnimation /t REG_DWORD /d 1
          Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI" /v AnimationDisabled /t REG_DWORD /d 1
     

   These options again target IoT/Enterprise and require a valid product key and appropriate edition.

On a standard Windows 11 Home laptop:

• There is no supported way to completely remove both the lock screen and the sign-in screen.
• Features like Custom Logon and Device Lockdown are not designed for Home and rely on Enterprise/IoT capabilities.
• The sign-in mechanism (password, PIN, Windows Hello) is required for account security and cannot be fully bypassed via supported settings.

The only supported customizations on Windows 11 Home are:

• Changing or disabling the lock screen background and related visuals via Settings > Personalization > Lock screen (for example, choosing Picture, Slideshow, or Windows spotlight, and toggling “Show the lock screen background picture on the sign-in screen”).
• Adjusting sign-in options (e.g., using Windows Hello PIN instead of a password) via Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options.

Completely removing both lock and sign-in screens on Windows 11 Home is not supported by the documented features.

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References:

• Customize the Lock Screen in Windows
• Sign-In Options in Windows
• Go passwordless in Windows
• Lab 2: Device Lockdown Features
• Custom Logon