The Lock screen, new to Windows 8, is a fancy feature which allows you to display an image while your PC/tablet is locked and displays other useful information.
However, when the PC is locked, the normal display off timeout value has no effect on it and you cannot specify the timeout value after which the screen will turn off while you are on the Lock screen. Turns out, there is a hidden registry setting for this and enabling it even turns it on in the Power Options control panel GUI - the same window where you specify other power related timeouts. Let me show you how.
- Open your Registry Editor and go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7
Tip: If you are not familiar with Registry Editor, see our Registry Editor fundamentals and do not forget to read how to jump to the desired registry key with one click.
- On the right side, you will see an "Attributes" value. It equals to 1 by default.
You need to change it to 2:
That's it! After doing this, you will see a new item in the Advanced Settings of the power plan inside the Power Options Control Panel.
Before the tweak, it looked like this:
And after applying the tweak you will get an additional item in the "Display" section:
The "Console lock display off timeout" is the one that's added. By default, it is set to 1 minute, and now you can set it to what you want. Note that the value must be less than the "Turn Display after…" value. Otherwise you will not notice the changes.
This tweak is applicable to Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (aka "Windows Blue").
I have created ready-to-use registry files for you. Download link is below.
Download ready-to-use registry files
Many thanks to my friend D.Bulanov for sharing this tip.
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Good to hear about new stuff, thanks for sharing it
Awesome tutorial!
Keep it up!
Agree totally. This is a real pain to change. Another Windows 8 “feature”.
I could not have done this without your instructions. Thank you!
Thanks, you are expert in computers I wish I could be like you :)
… and now you can set it to what you want….
Hey Sergey,
the value must, however, be less than the “Turn Display after…”. Otherwise it does not work.
Sure, thanks for your comment, I will add this into article.
Great article ! Thanks for sharing !
Fantastic program, thanks for your graet work
Thanks! Very well explained. Very happy person here.
i do what you say but the lock screen still comes on
If you want to disable lock screen, please refer to this article. The app covered in there has the ‘disable lock screen’ option
Can I do it on Windows 7?
do what?
Good stuff!
thanks
I have no lock screen image so the screen just goes black & locks after the initial time period, so I did this this tweak I set “Console lock display off timeout” at 3 hours & also set the “Turn off Display” to 4 hours.
But I’m still getting locked out at that black screen after the PC has been sitting idle for about 10 minutes & nothing I click or press will get me back into windows 8.1 (unless I do a reset).
Would this tweak work if the “Turn off Display” setting was set to “Never”?
Thanks!
many thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
enjoy
Thank you, thank you, thank you many times over!!! The lock screen coming on every minute was driving me crazy!
Happy to help you, Jennifer
This fix stills works. Thanks! It was difficult to find. Windows 8.1 Enterprise 2015/05/07
Or you can use
https://github.com/kubaszostak/windows-10-lock-screensaver
Not work on Dell Venue 8 Pro
Thanks Sergey.
Worked great in Windows 10 Pro.
Don’t mention it :)
Great tutorial! Couldn’t figure why I didn’t have a possibility to change this in W10, but you gave me the answer!
Thanks.
This is an awesome help :) Thanksalot
You are welcome.
Sergey, I found already three or four different advises and pages on this problem, but yours is the one that actually fixes it (Windows 10 Pro x64). This is amazing, thanks for sharing!
Oliver
You are welcome. Happy to be of help.
excellent…thanks for your tips…it works