automatic lock?

[Decker87]

Hi. I have troubles with my family messing around in my account because sometimes I forget to lock the computer (actually its fast user switching)...I'd like it to just go to the login screen when I leave it for 5 minutes, so that they can log in with the guest account. How do I do this?

 

[Ludic]

Set your screensaver to wait 5 minutes (or however long) and click the checkbox that says "On resume, password protect".

I'm assuming your using Windows XP.

 

[Tangent]

Here's what I do to actually lock the workstation instead of starting a password protected screensaver. This way any admin on that machine can unlock it and it'll leave them at the logon screen like you want.

Create a new shortcut directed to:

%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

Start in: %windir%

That'll give you a shortcut that you can click to lock the workstation. Now just create a new scheduled task which executes that shortcut and set its schedule for "when idle" for more than x minutes.

 

[Pixeleet]

Doesn't Windows Key + L do the same thing? Or does XP Home just go back to the Logon screen?

 

[Ludic]

Doesn't Windows Key + L do the same thing? Or does XP Home just go back to the Logon screen?

It'll go back to the Logon screen, but with Fast User Switching enabled it'll allow a 2nd, 3rd, etc person to log on concurrently.

If you want to lock the workstation like Windows 2000, you'll have to add a registry key:

Open up: Start > Run > regedit

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Create a new DWORD value and name it "DisableCAD" (without parenthesis)
The value should be set to "0"