By default, Windows will automatically lock your computer when you are away to prevent other people from using your desktop and accessing your files. When your computer is locked, it will show the lock screen by default. The lock screen is the screen or curtain you see when you turn on your computer before the sign in screen. It is also displayed once your computer is locked after you stepped away or press the Windows key + L. The Interactive logon: Machine inactivity limit security policy setting allows you to specify a number in seconds of user inactivity, and if exceeded, Windows automatically locks the computer. Below is how to change this policy so that your computer does not automatically lock or set an inactivity limit before locking.
How to enable or disable automatically locking computer after inactivity in Windows 11
As mentioned above, Windows will automatically lock your computer when you are away to prevent other people from using your desktop and accessing your files. Below is how to change Windows security policy settings that control when and how your computer locks. To do that, open Local Security Policy (secpol.msc) by clicking on the Start Menu and searching for Edit group policy as highlighted below. Under Best match, select Local Security Policy to launch Local Security Policy Editor. In the left pane of Local Security Policy Editor, expand the tree: In the Security Options details pane on the right, locate and double-click the setting Interactive login: Machine inactivity limit. On the logon: Machine inactivity limit policy Properties window, enter a number between 0 to 599940 for when the user sign-in session will lock after inactivity, and click OK. If Machine will be locked after is set to zero (0) or has no value (blank), the policy setting is disabled, and a user sign-in session is never locked after any inactivity. Local Security Policy is only available in the Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. If you run Windows Home and don’t have Local Security Policy editor, then open Windows Registry editor to configure it there. When Windows Registry opens, navigate to the tree path below: In the right pane of the System key, double click on InactivityTimeoutSecs REG_DWORD data to open. Note: If you don’t see a data for InactivityTimeoutSecs, right click in a blank area of the window and select New and choose DWORD (32-bit) Value, and type InactivityTimeoutSecs for the name to create one. Then change the inactivity timeout in seconds in Decimal and click OK to save. That should do it! Conclusion: This post showed you how to enable or disable inactivity timeout before computer automatically locks in Windows 11. if you find any error above or have something to share, please use the comment form below.
