Disable password and lock screens

 lockscreen

Oh, how I hate the Windows 8 lock screen.

Passwords and lock screens make a lot of sense on portable laptops and touchscreen tablets, but on your personal desktop, safe and secure in your home, they’re just get in the way and slow you down. I especially loathe Windows 8’s introduction of a lock screen that has to be dismissed every time your device wakes up, a function that simply doesn’t belong on non-touchscreen PCs.

 

 

To ditch it, press Windows-R on your keyboard to bring up the Run command box. Next, type gpedit.msc and click OK to bring up the Local Group Policy Editor. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization, then on the left side of the window double-click Do Not Display the Lock Screen. Select the Enabled radio button and click OK. Then close the Local Group Policy Editor.

Next time you start the computer no more lock screen.

 

Alternative method for Windows 8 home edition

 

How to Disable the Lock Screen on Windows 8 Without Using Group Policy

 

Windows 8’s lock screen is at home on a tablet, but it just adds an additional key press to the login process on a desktop or laptop.  You can disable the lock screen with a quick registry hack.

 

We have previously given instructions for disabling the lock screen, but these required the group policy editor.  Once you have made this tweak, Windows will always go straight to the password prompt, skipping the new lock screen.

Quickly Disable the Lock Screen

 

If you do not want to edit the registry by hand, we have done the work for you.  Just click here and download the .zip file to your computer:

Download DisableLockScreen.zip

Open the downloaded file and double-click the DisableLockScreen.reg file to disable the lock screen on your computer.  (If you are curious what a .reg file will do, you can right-click it and select Edit to examine it before importing.)

Once you have imported the file, you are done – you do not even have to restart your computer.  If you want the lock screen back later, just double-click the EnableLockScreen.reg file.