So I took a plunge and installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview on my main home PC. So far so good, but there is one annoyance - the system "locks" the computer after a period of inactivity causing me to re-enter my password.
I really would like to avoid this, but have no idea how. I already tried the power settings (no pass on wake up) and the screen saver settings with no luck. Is this some sort of bug, or am I missing something?
P.S. In this case I favor convenience over security.
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\System Settings click "change settings that are currently unavailable" and than choose at password protection on wakeup "don't require a password"
You can get rid of the lock screen (before the login prompt) by means of a policy change. Start gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization and in the left pane double-click the setting Do not display the lock screen and set it to Enabled.
Copied from another answer by me here.
Type "EAS" in the Metro Start Screen and click Settings on the right side. From there you can reset the EAS Policies. This will help if you have connected a mail account which enforces some security policies.
If you have a non-english Windows installed try the following (instead of typing EAS): Win+X and open Control panel > Control Panel > User Accounts > Reset Security Policies.
After this, you should be able to disable the requirement for password under PC Settings → User.
Check under power options. Setting --> control panel --> System and Security --> Power Options--> Password protection on wakeup
This particular question is NOT a group policy issue nor does it have anything to do with the power settings. This is the Windows 8.x “LOCK SCREEN” that displays if you have the system set up to display a screensaver. To disable this annoying “Lock Screen”, do the following :
Hit Apply and then OK.
This will prevent the Windows “Lock Screen” from re-appearing every time the system reaches the timeout value that was entered in the screen saver activation timer.
Issue resolved.
I think this is a bug, at least on my installation If i change the screen saver timeout from the default 5 mins to anything else then click OK or Apply and come back to Screen saver settings it has reverted back to 5 mins
(Posting this answer for searchability)
The answer on this page (http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-lock-screen-in-windows-8/) worked for others in my organization, but not for me. The solution there was:
METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
- Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type gpedit.msc and press Enter. > It'll open Group Policy Editor.
- Now go to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel -> Personalization
- double-click on "Do not display the lock screen" option and set its value to "Enabled".
METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit)
- Set via regedit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization
- create a new DWORD NoLockScreen and set its value to 1
NB: I'm running OSX, and then a Windows 8 VM with Parallels. @teeney-weeny's solution worked for me since the Parallels profile had some overrides.
Admittedly, my current environment has a cumulative solution (method 1 + method 2 + @teeney-weeny's solution).
Right click on desktop and click personalize and go to click screen saver and check the dialog box on resume display logon screen
