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What should I do if Windows 10 not locking on sleep?
My Windows 10 computer is not locking automatically when it goes to sleep. I have confirmed that the "Require sign-in when the PC wakes from sleep" setting is turned on in my power options, but when the screen turns off or the system sleeps, anyone can still move the mouse or press a key to get full access to my desktop without being prompted for a password. This is a major security concern, and I have already tried updating my graphics drivers and checking for any conflicting settings in the screensaver and lock screen menu without any success. I am looking for any other troubleshooting steps or potential fixes that could resolve this issue and make sure my PC properly locks itself every single time it enters sleep mode.
2 Replies
This is the culprit about 80% of the time. The setting you confirmed ("Require sign-in...") is for general sleep, but there's another, more powerful setting specifically for when you manually lock the PC.
- Press Win + R to open the Run dialog.
- Type powercfg.cpl and press Enter to open Power Options.
- Next to your selected power plan, click "Change plan settings".
- Then click "Change advanced power settings".
- In the new window, scroll down and expand the tree for "Console lock display off timeout".
- Expand the sub-tree and ensure that "Console lock display off timeout" is set to a value like 1 minute (or less). This setting dictates how long after the screen turns off that the system will force a lock.
- Also, expand the "Display" tree and ensure the "Turn off display after" setting is a longer period than the lock timeout. For example:
- Console lock display off timeout: 1 minute
- Turn off display after: 2 minutes
This means 1 minute after the screen turns off, the PC will lock, and then a minute later, it will also go to sleep (if configured). The lock triggers first. - Click Apply and OK.
This is a common security concern, and it's good that you've already checked the "Require sign-in" setting—sometimes, other configurations or system issues can interfere with the lock behavior.
