How to stop computer from going to lock screen after 15 minutes (Windows 8.1)
My laptop was going to lockscreen after 15 minutes. I adjusted power settings and went to advanced screen, adjusted that and ......no change.  Now somebody somewhere said that my system settings were overriding my power settings and that helped. I did this and things were fixed. But now, it's gone back to 15 minute thing, which is a pain when I'm watching, say, a movie. And, I don't remember what I did before to fix it, and I can't find the information anywhere!  Help!!!
July 22nd, 2014 6:45pm

Hi,

Have you set a screen saver time out? You can right click the desktop, then Personalize\Screen Saver, check if you have set a timeout for screensaver, this can also be controlled in group policy

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization, Screen saver timeout

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July 23rd, 2014 6:08am

Thank you for your help. However, I had set screensaver at zero, so no screensaver. I have set sleep at "Never".  Laptop still goes to lock screen after 15 minutes. 
July 23rd, 2014 9:29pm

Please check your time for Hard Disk "turn off".

You can find that in Control Panel -> Power Options -> Change plan settings -> Change advanced power settings then in the view tree search for Hard Disk.

Best regards.


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July 23rd, 2014 9:55pm

Okay, have tried this.....now to wait and see! Thank you! :)
July 24th, 2014 1:01am

Nope.....went black and when I clicked on it, it was at lock screen....sigh!
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July 24th, 2014 1:19am

After 15 minutes, I should add...

July 24th, 2014 1:50am

did everything mentioned in post link, but it is still going to lock screen after 15 minutes. I have everything set to never.....

When I first got laptop, I had this problem. I tried everything, then someone suggested something, and it worked! For several months, I had no problem. Then I did a cleanup of browsing history, etc. on Chrome. Since then, this darn machine goes to lock screen after 15 minutes. Grrr!

Thank you for all of your suggestions!  Do you have any more?? 

July 24th, 2014 7:11pm

Hi,

Seems we all missed an important option:

Please click "Settings" in the right charm bar, then "Change PC Settings"\"PC and device"\"Lock Screen",

Turn off "When my PC is inactive, show the lock screen instead of turning off the screen"

You can change the inactive time with security policy:

 

Click Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Local Security Policy> Local Policies> Security Options> Interactive Logon: Machine Inactivity Limit>set the time you want.

After you change the policy setting, run gpupdate /force

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July 25th, 2014 8:00am

Hi Yolanda,

Thank you for your contribution. I am a computer illiterate. Where (how) do I go to "Click 'settings' in the right charm bar"?

What is the "right charm bar"?

I have a Windows Vista computer and wants to prevent the computer from reverting to the 'lock' screen after a short time.

Thank you.

April 19th, 2015 2:52pm

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