Automatically Lock Your Windows 10 PC When You Are Away

As a security precaution, it’s always a good idea to configure your Windows 10 PC to automatically get locked when you are away from your PC.

Windows 10, like earlier versions, supports locking PC using Windows logo + L keyboard shortcut but most users don’t use this nifty feature when moving away from their PCs. If you also forget locking your PC when moving away from it, you can use the automatic lock functionality.

There is an option in Windows 10 which automatically locks down your PC after a certain period of inactivity. For instance, you can make Windows 10 to automatically lock the PC after a minute of inactivity.

That is, if you do not move the mouse, touch the touchpad or screen (if equipped with touch screen), or press any key on the keyboard for a minute or specified inactive time, Windows 10 automatically locks the PC and displays the lock screen. Of course, you should set a user account password before even thinking about enabling auto lock.

Automatically lock your Windows 10 PC

In this guide, we will see how to automatically lock your Windows 10 PC when you are away from your PC.

Important: Make sure that you have set a strong password for your local user account or using a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 10.

Step 1: Type (or copy & paste) control desk.cpl,,@screensaver in Run command and then press Enter key to open Screen Saver Settings dialog. Alternatively, navigate to Settings app > Personalization > Lock screen > Screen saver settings to open the same.

If you are on Windows 10 Creators Update or later (build 14997 or later),

Step 2: Here, from Wait drop-down box, select the time (in minutes) after which Windows 10 should lock the PC and ask for password to use it again. We recommend you keep this to 1 minute.

NOTE: If the Wait drop-down box is grayed out, select any screen saver from Screen saver drop-down menu, select the time after which you want to Windows to lock the PC, and then select None option from Screen saver drop down menu if you don’t want to activate a screen saver after the selected period of inactivity.

Step 3: Check the box labelled On resume, display logon screen option.

Click Apply button. That’s all! You have successfully configured your Windows 10 PC to automatically get locked after a certain period of inactivity.