[Fix] Lock Screen Appears Automatically at Constant Intervals in Windows 8 and Later

If you are using Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 operating system, you might be very well aware of the new Lock Screen which appears just before the Login or Welcome Screen. It shows current date and time along with your Internet connection status, battery level and other useful details.

Windows_8_Lock_Screen.png

But some users don’t like this extra screen, that’s why we posted following tutorial in past which helps you in turning the Lock Screen off in Windows 8 and later:

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How to Disable Lock Screen in Windows 8 and 8.1?

The above mentioned tutorial works perfectly and completely disables Lock Screen. Still a few users have reported that the Lock Screen automatically appears in their computers at constant intervals.

Here are a few excerpts of some readers comments:

I don’t want to turn off the lock screen all together as I have a laptop. However, it pops up every 15 minutes I’m idle. This is not what I want.

My screen still locks every 30 stupid seconds. I have windows 8 for my PC, it never did this before, it updated then all of a sudden every 30 seconds the screen locks and I have to enter my password to get back to my desktop. This is my home computer not a phone and its highly annoying now. I just want to know how to make this stop.

Is there a way to enable the lock screen but disable the need to write your password?

So today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you how to prevent Lock Screen from appearing automatically at constant intervals such as 30 seconds, 15 minutes, etc.

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Also if you don’t want to enter your user account password every time Windows shows the Lock Screen, this tutorial will help you.

Actually the Lock Screen automatically appears because of a built-in functionality in Windows. There is a feature in Windows which shows the Lock Screen automatically as soon as your computer goes into idle mode. You just need to turn that feature off to permanently get rid of the Lock Screen.

Try following methods to get rid of the Lock Screen permanently in Windows 8 and later:

METHOD 1: Disable Lock Screen on Resume

1. Right-click on Desktop and select Personalize option. It’ll open Desktop Personalization window. Now click on Screen Saver icon present at the bottom-right corner of the window. It’ll open “Screen Saver Settings” window.

Alternatively, you can directly open “Screen Saver Settings” window by using any of following mentioned commands in RUN dialog box:

control desk.cpl,,1
control desk.cpl,,@screensaver
desk.cpl ,1

PS: Interested people can learn more about these direct shortcut commands in following exclusive tutorial:

Create Shortcuts to Themes, Desktop Background, Screen Saver, Display Settings and More

2.  Once you open “Screen Saver Settings” window, uncheck “On resume, display logon screen” option.

Disable_Lock_Logon_Screen_on_Resume.png

3. Apply the changes and now you’ll no longer see the Lock Screen randomly appearing in your system.

METHOD 2: Never Turn Display Off

You can also follow the steps given below if you still see the Lock Screen:

1. Open Power Options from Control Panel. You can also open Power Options using Win+X Menu or using powercfg.cpl command in RUN dialog box.

2. Now click on “Choose when to turn off the display” link given in left-side pane.

Choose_When_Display_Turn_Off.png

3. Now set all given options to Never and save changes.

Change_Display_Turn_Off_Sleep_Settings.png

Now your computer should not turn the display off automatically and you should not get the Lock Screen.

METHOD 3: Disable Password Protection on Resume

If you don’t want Windows to ask for the password each time you see Lock Screen or when your PC resumes from standby mode, you can follow the steps given below:

1. Again open Power Options and click on “Require a password on wakeup” option.

2. Now click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” link given at the top.

3. Now select “Don’t require a password” option and click on “Save changes” button.

Disable_Password_Protection_on_Wakeup.png

That’s it. Now Windows will not ask you to enter the password at Lock Screen or when your computer resumes from standby.

METHOD 4: Change Machine Inactivity Limit

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box, type Secpol.msc and press Enter.

2. Now go to “Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options“.

3. In right-side pane, double-click on “Interactive logon: Machine inactivity limit” option and set its value to 9999 and apply changes.

Thanks to our reader “lefteris” for sharing this solution…

Also Check:

How to Customize Day Name, Date and Time Format on Windows 8 and 8.1 Lock Screen?

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 8

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. I have done everything in these tutorials and my lock screen still appears every 5 minutes and requires a password.

  2. My sister’s laptop is instead of shutdown loop back to lock screen? no alt f4 or power button working same problem. please mail me.

  3. why is there a lil pair of glsses with a number one on my lock screen occassionally n what is it ?

  4. I have tried all methods on here. None of them work. my computer is stuck on a 1 minute lock screen timer. I followed all the steps in this guide and found that the settings are already set the way they need to be. I even tried doing the registry edit and such, still no luck with it. I honestly do not know what to do anymore.

  5. I think that a lot of the people going here are doing so because they tried the standard (easy) methods which are described here, and none of this worked. So this article doesn’t help much.

  6. I have tried all of the above and a few other things that I found on the internet. Nothing works.

  7. Method 1 worked for me as well. Just had to deselect the option to display login screen. Thanks!

  8. Hey everyone. Open Control Panel, Power Options, and select , “Require a password on wakeup”, in the option list at the left. Select the option, “Change settings that are currently unavailable”. Below at the Shutdown Settings, there should be a box that you can uncheck, to turn off the Lock Screen. After, “Save changes”, at the button below. If you’re running windows 8.1 Home like I am, you may want to turn off “fast startup” as well. There has been some nasty issues with that being turned on. (such as startups, restarts, and shutdowns)
    I hope this helped and good luck!

  9. This isn’t working….. I’ve tried all of the above and the system on screensaver hasn’t registered any of my request, my laptop is still shutting down after 30 seconds….

  10. Hi, I want to lock the system if it is idle for 30 min then automatically logoff (extending more 30 min) if the system is not unlocked. can you help me for this scenario.

  11. The frustrations have ended and I no longer have to sign in as I have for the past few days. Computer went to sleep after about 1 minute and I could not rectify the fault. Tech Support was brilliant; many thanks

  12. I have been struggling with this for 8 hours now. I have tried everything here except for changing “dim screen” to NEVER. The reason I hate this with ever fiber of my being is when I try to burn CDs the stupid thing times out. I am not sure why it is considered “idle time” though. It seems this is new because I will walk away while a CD is burning and it fails. I have ruined at least 20 CDs this way, not to mention when downloading more than 100 songs to my iPod (fails right in the middle).

    Also when you are trying to download a lengthy program EPIC FAIL. So yes, I am super super angry about this because I have been changing the settings all day and it STILL TIMES OUT AFTER ONE OR TWO MINUTES. I HAVE TO STAND IN FRONT OF AN 8 HOUR DOWNLOAD TO MAKE SURE I MOVE THE MOUSE SO IT DOES NOT TIME OUT.

    IS IT JUST ME, OR IS TECHNOLOGY GOING BACKWARD? It was super conveneint and easy 10 years ago and now it is aggravating and I want to take this pc and smash it on the floor and stomp on it every single day. I spend more time trying to figure out things that they changed for my own good which isn’t.

    IF IT AIN’T BROKE DON’T FIX IT.

  13. OKAY. I DID EVERYTHING THIS SAYS….AND HAVE BEEN DOING IT NON-STOP FOR THE LAST 8 HOURS. I AM GOING TO TEAR MY HAIR OUT. NOTHNG WORKS. IT’S LIKE A MICROSOFT UPDATE CHANGED ALL MY SETTINGS AND WILL NOT LET ME CHANGE THEM BACK SO NOW I CAN NEVER BURN ANOTHER CD AS LONG AS I LIVE, OR DOWNLOAD ANYTHING WITHOUT SITTING IN FRONT OF IT…..

    BASICALLY WHAT IT MEANS IS I HAVE ANOTHER 16 HOURS IN FRONT OF THIS COMPUTER WHICH MAKES ME ANGRY.

  14. none of the above, or suggestions from the comments worked for me. On the screensaver window, I had to change the wait 1 minute to a higher number (i chose 2000 minutes), then mine started working fine, even though i had none for screen saver and the box next to it unchecked. probably a bug in the software.

  15. Run your PC over with the lawn mower. This will remove the lockscreen altogether. Worked for me.

  16. This also worked on my bf’s acer that has windows 10. I restarted after doing this and woosh no god damn lock screen. All the stupid how to guides out there always give the wrong registry path!

  17. the problem is from security policy

    start – run – secpol.msc
    From : security settings , go to , local policies – security options and find :
    interactive logon: machine inactivity limit ….and set it to 9999.

    that worked fine in a domain enviroment , without having a policy for this , it wan not configured .

  18. Thanks “lefteris” for the comment. It appears that this is where my lock screen was picking up the timeout (900 seconds) HOWEVER the seconds are grayed out. Any idea on how to open it up for modification? FYI… I’m using Win10 Pro.

  19. Along with most everyone else here, none of these solutions work. The screen still goes to the lock screen after less than 5 minutes without action. All my settings are set to “Never”. my screen saver is turned off, box is unchecked… I have been all over the internet and EVERYONE gives the same useless steps. They don’t work. And I am about to sell this new laptop and go Apple for the first time in my 33 years of life. Windows 10 is the most frustrating OS I have ever seen.
    I am an animator and special effects creator, I have to have long periods where I am staring at video frames, I cannot have the screen locking up on me constantly and interrupting my focus it is absolutely ridiculous. Why would Microsoft think this feature would ever be a good idea? It makes no logical sense for the screen to lock up randomly between 1 to 5 minutes (it is quite random as to how long it takes, but it is always within a 5 minute period.)

  20. I’ve been having this problem for the last few days. I’ve tried everything I could find on the subject to no avail whatsoever. I just now tried this solution and it seems to have worked. I’ll walk away from the laptop for a few minutes to confirm… Fingers crossed!!!

  21. my PC goes to lock screen then shuts down, randomly… 5 mins to hours. I have to hit the power button to turn back on and then login but it will take me exactly where I was. This never happens when computer is idle only when I am doing something. Any ideas?

  22. ^^ Check Power Options and make sure options like turn off hard disk, turn off display, etc are set to Never.

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