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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 w...
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.