How To Securely Disable The Lock Screen

In Windows 10, every time you reboot your computer or log off and log back Into your account, by default, the first thing you'll see prior to signing In, Is the lock screen. Once that's dismissed, you can login and access the Windows environment thereafter. Not everyone Is a fan of the lock screen, hence would rather get rid of It altogether. If you're part of this equation, In this tutorial, I will show you how to securely remove It and keep It that way.


Before I make a start, here's what I'm referring to In terms of the Windows 10 lock screen. I've rebooted my PC and just before being able to access the sign In screen, the lock screen Is displayed as shown below.

Upon dismissing It, the sign In screen Is displayed, whereby I can enter my password and access the operating system thereafter.

Apart from being able to add a custom Image to the lock screen, thereby Improve Its appearance, It doesn't really serve a useful purpose. I personally think It's an added feature that I could do without. If you share the same opinion, then this tutorial Is for you.

I will demonstrate how to securely disable It, by using the good old Group Policy Editor. Do note, that the GPE Is only available In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education editions. If you're running either of these, then you're good to go. So without further delay, let's get this tutorial started.

Step One:

To access the Group Policy Editor, open the Run menu, enter gpedit.msc and hit OK as shown below.

Step Two:

The Group Policy Editor will now launch, so navigate to the following directory.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization

Make sure the Personalization folder Is selected, and then on the right pane, double-click Do not display the lock screen.

Step Three:

To the left of the window, select the Enabled radio button and then click OK to finalize the process. The lock screen has now been securely disabled. We'll check out the feature In the next step.

Last Step:

I've now opened the Windows 10 Settings app, and clicked on Personalization > Lock screen and as you can see, the Lock screen feature Is grayed out, hence disabled. Essentially, when you reboot your computer or log off and log on, It will Immediately display the sign In screen. Perfect!

Final Thoughts:

There Is no right or wrong as to whether you wish to keep or disable the lock screen, but rather based on personal preference and your computing usability. The good thing about this Implementation, Is that not too many users are aware that It exists In the Group Policy Editor, and that's what makes It so effective.

If you've changed your mind and want to reverse the process, simply refer to Step Three above, and select the Not Configured radio button. Don't forget to hit OK on exit.