How to lock (not sleep) a Windows 10 laptop on lid close?

Question

If my laptop is plugged in I want closing the lid to automatically lock the computer, without putting it to sleep. I don't see an option to do this in Power Options:

Is there a hack to achieve this?

Answer 1

As far as I know, there is no built-in function to achieve this. But you can do this using a third party tool.

One of them is LapLock. This program is a lightweight (<50KB), open source tool and it's developed by Etienne Dechamps.

Steps...

1. Download the program - https://github.com/dechamps/laplock/releases
   ^{(Download the latest laplock.exe release)}

2. Open the Windows Startup folder by using this run command - 'shell:common startup'

3. Add laplock.exe to your Startup folder.

You can also use Lid Lock to do this.

Note: Depending on the laptop model, closing the lid may restrict airflow, which could lead to overheating and potential physical damage. In rare instances, this overheating could pose safety risks, including battery failure or explosion.

Answer 2

Two steps:

• Capture the close lid event.
• Trigger a lock-screen event.

See: Capturing laptop lid closing event in windows?, and Command-line (cmd) command to lock a windows machine.

From those sources, we can use RegisterPowerSettingNotification and GUID_LIDSWITCH_STATE_CHANGE to detect the trigger, and run:

rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation 

from the command line to send a lock screen request to the machine.

I don't know what compilers you have available, or what languages you know, but this information should help you set up a program to do it for you.

I don't use Windows myself, so I can't build or test it for you.

Answer 3

The solution is simple, in options --> accounts --> Sign-in options: Require sign-in = Every Time