How to Stop Windows 11 From Locking Itself

To stop Windows 11 from locking itself, open Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options and set "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?" to Never. Then raise the screen and sleep times under Settings, System, Power & battery (step by step in how to stop your computer from sleeping), and turn off Dynamic lock. Those three settings cause most self-locks. If your PC still locks after a fixed number of minutes, the cause is usually a policy your company set, and the checks below show you which one it is. To change only when the screen turns off, including the 1-minute timer on the lock screen, go to change the screen timeout. To turn off the screen saver, see Fix 4.

A PC that stays unlocked does not keep you active in chat apps. Slack sets you away after about 10 minutes without keyboard or mouse input, even if Windows never locks.

Why Windows 11 locks itself: six causes

Windows has six separate things that can lock the screen. Turning off one of them does nothing if another is still on, which is why "I set it to Never and it still locks" is so common.

Fix 1: set "If you've been away" to Never

• Press Win+I to open Settings.
• Go to Accounts, then Sign-in options.
• Under Additional settings, find "If you've been away, when should Windows require you to sign in again?"
• Pick Never.

This setting decides whether Windows asks for your PIN or password when the PC wakes from sleep. On some laptops the list also has minute options, such as 1, 3, 5 or 15 minutes. Pick Never, or the longest time you are comfortable with. If the menu is missing or greyed out, your organisation manages it.

The same setting from a command prompt, for the current power plan:

:: 0 = never ask for a password on wake, plugged in and on battery
powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0
powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0
powercfg /SETACTIVE SCHEME_CURRENT

Fix 2: raise the screen and sleep timeout

A PC that sleeps comes back to the lock screen. On many newer laptops, turning off the screen also puts the laptop into Modern Standby, so the screen timeout acts as a lock timer. The display timer on its own, including the 1-minute timer on the lock screen, is in change the screen timeout on Windows 11 below.

• Open Settings, System, Power & battery.
• Expand Screen and sleep. On Windows 11 24H2 it is called Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts.
• Set "When plugged in, turn off my screen after" and "When plugged in, put my device to sleep after" to a longer time, or Never.
• Do the same for the battery rows if you work unplugged.

From a command prompt, with no admin rights needed for your own power plan:

:: 0 = never. Times are in minutes.
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change standby-timeout-ac 0
powercfg /change monitor-timeout-dc 30
powercfg /change standby-timeout-dc 60

If the dropdowns are greyed out with a line that says "Some of these settings are managed by your organization", IT set them. Skip to the policy section.

Change the screen timeout on Windows 11

The screen timeout only turns the display off. The PC keeps running, downloads continue, and a key press brings the screen back. Sleep and the lock are separate timers, which is why a screen set to Never can still go dark on the lock screen.

• Press Win+I and open System, Power & battery (just Power on a desktop PC without a battery).
• Expand Screen, sleep, & hibernate timeouts (24H2 and later) or Screen and sleep (23H2 and older).
• Set When plugged in, turn my screen off after to a longer time, or Never. The menu goes up to 5 hours.
• On a laptop, set On battery power, turn my screen off after as well. The display is one of the largest power users, so keep a battery timeout if you work unplugged.

The old Control Panel path edits the same value: Control Panel, Power Options, Change plan settings, Turn off the display.

powercfg /change takes minutes. To set the timeout in seconds, or to read the current value, use the setting's alias VIDEOIDLE:

:: Screen off after 90 seconds when plugged in, then apply
powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE 90
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

:: Show the current screen timeout in seconds (AC = plugged in, DC = battery)
powercfg /query SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOIDLE

These change your own power plan and need no admin rights. If a company policy sets the timeout, Windows puts the policy value back.

The screen turns off after 1 minute on the lock screen

When the PC is locked, Windows uses a hidden timer, the console lock display off timeout, which is 1 minute by default. Your normal screen timeout does not apply there. To make it 10 minutes (600 seconds) when plugged in:

powercfg /setacvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_VIDEO VIDEOCONLOCK 600
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

To show this setting in Control Panel under Advanced power settings, Display, run this once in an admin Command Prompt. It changes the registry value that hides it:

reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7" /v Attributes /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

Timer that darkens the screen	Where to change it
Turn my screen off after (plugged in, battery)	Settings, Power & battery, or VIDEOIDLE
Console lock display off timeout	VIDEOCONLOCK, 1 minute by default
Screen saver	Personalization, Lock screen, Screen saver
Presence sensing, adaptive dimming	Search Settings for "presence sensing"
Company policy	Only IT, through Group Policy or Intune

Fix 3: turn off Dynamic lock and presence sensing

Dynamic lock pairs with your phone over Bluetooth and locks the PC shortly after the phone leaves range. It also fires when Bluetooth drops for no reason, which looks like a random lock while you sit at the desk.

• Open Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options.
• Expand Dynamic lock.
• Clear "Allow Windows to automatically lock your device when you're away".

Presence sensing exists on laptops with a presence sensor, many of them sold as Copilot+ PCs. It can lock the laptop when you step away or dim the screen when you look away. Search Settings for "presence sensing", open it, and turn off the option that locks the device when you leave. The exact label differs by maker.

Fix 4: turn off the screen saver on Windows 11

Windows 11 ships with the screen saver off, so if one starts on your PC, something turned it on: an old profile, a PC maker's app or an IT policy. With On resume, display logon screen ticked, the screen saver also locks the PC when it ends.

Open Settings, Personalization, Lock screen, or right-click the desktop and choose Personalize, then Lock screen.

Under Related settings, click Screen saver. The classic Screen Saver Settings window opens.

Set Screen saver to (None).

Clear On resume, display logon screen if it is ticked.

Click Apply, then OK. The change applies at once, with no restart.

Two shortcuts open the same window: press Win+R and run control desk.cpl,,@screensaver, or type "screen saver" in Start and pick Turn screen saver on or off. To keep a screen saver but stop it from locking the PC, leave it on and clear only On resume, display logon screen. The screen saver then ends on a mouse move, with no sign-in.

The screen saver keeps turning on, or the settings are greyed out

The last two rows are not screen savers, so (None) does not stop them.

Group Policy has five screen saver settings, under User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Personalization. Each one locks a control in the Screen Saver window and writes a registry value you can read:

Reading them needs no admin rights. In Command Prompt:

:: Screen saver policies set by Group Policy or Intune
reg query "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop"

:: "Prevent changing screen saver"
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispScrSavPage

ScreenSaveActive REG_SZ 1 with ScreenSaveTimeOut REG_SZ 900 means a screen saver forced on after 900 seconds, which is 15 minutes. If ScreenSaverIsSecure is 1 as well, it locks the PC. "ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value" means no policy is set. On a work PC, changing the key yourself does not last: Group Policy writes it back within about 90 minutes, and Intune on its next sync.

Turn the screen saver off with Group Policy or the registry

On your own PC you can set the same switch Windows reads at sign-in.

Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise or Education. Press Win+R, run gpedit.msc, go to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Personalization, open Enable screen saver, choose Disabled and click OK. The screen saver stays off and the dropdown turns grey.

Windows 11 Home has no Group Policy editor. Set the per-user value in Command Prompt, then sign out and back in:

:: Turn the screen saver off for the signed-in user
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v ScreenSaveActive /t REG_SZ /d 0 /f

To check the current values from PowerShell:

Get-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop' |
  Select-Object ScreenSaveActive, ScreenSaveTimeOut, ScreenSaverIsSecure, 'SCRNSAVE.EXE'

ScreenSaveActive of 0, or an empty SCRNSAVE.EXE, means no screen saver runs. Windows 10 uses the same window (Settings, Personalization, Lock screen, Screen saver settings), the same desk.cpl shortcut and the same registry values. For a Mac, see how to turn off the screen saver on a Mac.

Still locks? Check for a company lock policy

If the PC locks after the same number of minutes every time, and it does so while you read or watch a video, the lock most likely comes from a policy IT set. Other signs: the Screen and sleep dropdowns say "Some of these settings are managed by your organization", the screen saver options are greyed out, setting everything to Never changes nothing, and a coworker with the same laptop locks at the same minute.

Three policies lock a work PC after a set time without keyboard or mouse input. None of them can be changed from the Settings app:

Power policies can add to this. If IT also forces a short display-off time and a password on wake, the PC may lock a few minutes before the policy limit.

Open Command Prompt (Win+R, cmd, Enter) and run these three lines. Reading these keys does not need admin rights:

:: 1. Machine inactivity limit, in seconds (set by Group Policy or Intune)
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v InactivityTimeoutSecs

:: 2. Screen saver forced by policy
reg query "HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop"

:: 3. Intune device lock, if your company uses Intune
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\DeviceLock"

Read the results like this:

• InactivityTimeoutSecs REG_DWORD 0x384 is 900 seconds, so a lock after 15 minutes. 0x258 is 10 minutes and 0x708 is 30 minutes.

• ScreenSaveActive 1, ScreenSaverIsSecure 1 and ScreenSaveTimeOut 900 mean a forced screen saver that locks after 900 seconds.

• A MaxInactivityTimeDeviceLock value is in minutes, set through Intune.

• "ERROR: The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value" means that policy is not set.

To see whether Intune manages the PC at all, open Settings, Accounts, Access work or school. A connected work account with an Info button means the PC takes policies from your company's management server. What else Intune lets IT see is in what can my employer see with Intune.

Why so many work PCs lock at 15 minutes

Most companies do not pick the number themselves. They apply a standard:

• The CIS benchmark for Windows asks for a machine inactivity limit of 900 seconds or less, and not 0.

• Microsoft's Windows security baseline sets the same 900 seconds.

• PCI DSS version 4, the standard for anyone who handles card data, requires a new sign-in after a session is idle for more than 15 minutes (requirement 8.2.8).

• Health and finance companies often cite HIPAA or internal audit rules for the same limit.

So asking IT to "turn it off" usually fails. Asking for an exception for one role, such as a shared lab display, has a better chance, because these standards allow documented exceptions.

On your own PC with Windows 11 Pro, you can change the machine inactivity limit in the Local Group Policy Editor. Press Win+R, run gpedit.msc, and go to Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options, Interactive logon: Machine inactivity limit. Set it to 0 to turn it off. Windows 11 Home has no Group Policy Editor.

On a work PC, leave it alone. Domain or Intune policy overwrites a local change at the next refresh, which runs about every 90 minutes and at each restart, and endpoint software logs changes to a security control. Lock the PC yourself with Win+L when you step away and sign in with Windows Hello to make coming back fast. On a managed Mac the same rule arrives as a configuration profile, listed in System Settings, General, Device Management; see keep a Mac screen from locking.

What does not stop the lock

A few common tips only work against some of the causes above.

• Disabling the lock screen with the "Do not display the lock screen" policy or the NoLockScreen registry value only removes the picture you see before the sign-in box. The PC still locks and still asks for your PIN.

• PowerToys Awake and presentationsettings /start stop sleep and screen timeouts. They do not count as input, so a machine inactivity limit still locks the PC on time. More in does PowerToys Awake keep Slack active.

• A mouse jiggler or a key-press script resets the idle timer and so does beat an inactivity lock. It also shows up on endpoint monitoring, which is how people get noticed; see can a mouse jiggler be detected. On a work laptop the lock is a security control, and bypassing it can break company policy.

For every no-admin way to keep the machine awake, see how to keep a work computer awake without admin rights and the PowerShell keep-awake scripts.

Windows 10: the same fixes, different menus

• Sign-in on wake: Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options, "Require sign-in", set to Never.

• Timeouts: Settings, System, Power & sleep.

• Dynamic lock: Settings, Accounts, Sign-in options, Dynamic lock.

• Screen saver: Settings, Personalization, Lock screen, Screen saver settings.

The powercfg and reg query commands above work the same on Windows 10.

An unlocked PC does not keep Slack or Teams active

Windows locking and chat apps going away are two separate timers. Slack sets you away after about 10 minutes with no keyboard or mouse input, and Teams shows you away after about 5 minutes of inactivity. A PC that never locks can still show you as away in both. The details are in how long does Slack stay active and how long before Teams shows away.

The Slack options for a Windows PC are in how to keep Slack active on Windows. On Linux, the lock settings are in how to stop Ubuntu from locking the screen.

FAQ

Why does Windows 11 lock after 1 minute? The most common cause is a laptop with Modern Standby whose screen timeout is 1 minute on battery, together with "If you've been away" set to Every Time. Raise the battery screen timeout and set the sign-in option to Never.

Why does my PC lock even though every setting says Never? A machine inactivity limit or a forced screen saver set by IT overrides your settings. Run the two reg query commands above to see which.

How do I turn off the screen timeout completely? Set both "turn my screen off after" rows to Never, or run powercfg /change monitor-timeout-ac 0 and powercfg /change monitor-timeout-dc 0. The lock screen keeps its own 1-minute timer until you change VIDEOCONLOCK.

Is it safe to turn off auto lock? On a home PC in a private room, usually. On a laptop you carry, or any work PC, an unlocked screen lets anyone at the desk read your mail and chats. Lock it by hand with Win+L when you step away.