Dave Taylor answers free tech support questions about a wide variety of business and technical topics, including blogging, iphone help, ipod help, AdSense, MySpace, Sony PSP help, Mp3 players, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

How do I stop Windows XP screensaver asking for my password?

Okay, I have one - I want to know if there's a way to change the time for the login screens to show up in Windows XP Pro? When I walk away from my computer, I come back to find out that I have to log in again. I really don't need my machine to time out like that because I am the only one that is using it. I do have a screen saver set up to go on after about 15 minutes but it's annoying to have to log in each time I come back to the computer.

Dave's Answer:

What you're seeing is the screensaver password protect feature of Windows XP. To disable this, you need to get into the Display Properties screen. There are (at least) two ways to get there. Right click on an open area of your desktop and click Properties, or go into Control Panel and double click Display.

Go to the Screen Saver tab, and uncheck the "On resume, password protect" box (you'll see it circled in the screenshot below). To leave the password protection but extend the time before a password is required, increase the minutes in the "Wait" box on that tab and leave the password protect box checked.

Before disabling it, be mindful of the potential consequences. Under certain circumstances the security provided by this inconvenience should be considered benefit enough to cope with it. This prevents anyone from walking up to your computer and having access to all of your data. If this is a home PC, that might not be of any concern. In small business environments where data is shared amongst everyone anyway, it's also probably not of much concern other than for certain staff that have access to data like payroll that is confidential.

Another thing to keep in mind is if this is a computer in a business with a server, chances are pretty good it's in a Microsoft Active Directory domain. At a very basic level, Active Directory puts all computers at a business within an organizational structure that centralizes resources and authentication (verifying your username and password), affording greater security, flexibility and control. One feature of Active Directory is the use of Group Policies which allow
administrators to define what users can and cannot do with their machines, including mandatory configuration settings.

It's possible to configure Group Policies so users cannot modify screen saver settings, including the time to wait before activating the screensaver and if users can disable password protection. Under these circumstances, even if you can disable the password protection it may get enabled again, and there isn't anything you can do about it (unless you're the server administrator). Also in a business environment, be mindful of any company policies that require password protected screen savers, even if it's not mandated through Group
Policy or similar technical controls.

Thanks to Chris Buechler, John Marshall and Tommy Martin for their input

Help others find this article at Del.icio.us, Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and Stumble Upon

Categorized: Windows Help (Article 3962)
Tagged:
Previous: When does Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger ship?
Next: How do I figure out my IP address on a Mac?

Subscribe!

Never miss another useful Q&A article again! Subscribe to AskDaveTaylor with Google Reader.

Comments

Hi all,
There's a password-less software to login/unlock Win by USB flash drive.
Think of the USB flash drive as the key, and the computer as your house. You want to get in you have to use the key,
otherwise no one can get in unless they forcefully break in.

Maybe for those who do sharing home PC.

Howto article:
http://www.rohos.com/configuring_usb_stick_logon.htm

Posted by: pavv at July 18, 2005 7:58 AM

My on resume box is grayed out and I can't find what's controlling it to uncheck it. Please advise.
Thanks

Posted by: Larry at November 22, 2005 12:03 AM

Hi, I want to disable password protection of XP at logon. I don't want it to ask any passwords.There is a way to change your password but there is no way to cancel it. I just set the password to try but now I can't cancel it. Please help me. Thanks

Posted by: aspendos at December 9, 2005 9:16 AM

My problem is the opposite to disabling te screen saver in as much, I need to stop users disabling the password protected screen saver, as we have a large office with sensitive data we need to have the screen savers active, how do we prevnt them extending the time out/ disabling the screen saver

Posted by: Vince Taylor at February 6, 2006 8:52 AM

hi.

I would like to know how can i protect mi desktop on winxp professional with a screensaver. I mark the password box for password proteccion on the display propreties but my screensaver doesnt protect my desktop when i move the mouse or touch a key and either ask me to put a password or change it. It simply go to desktop and anyone can work on it. wht can i do?
thanks.

Posted by: James at March 23, 2006 8:52 AM

My on resume box is grayed out and I can't find away to enable it! I was alreaddy in regedit scrensaveactive is 1 please help

Posted by: chriss at June 2, 2006 2:33 PM

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoDispScrSavPage"=dword:00000000

Posted by: q at August 21, 2006 4:47 AM

My problem is that on selecting the Screen Saver option,

I am getting the option: ON RESUME DISPLAY WELCOME SCREEN.

I want that instead it must display:

ON RESUME PASSWORD PROTECT.

Kindly help how to do that.

Regards,

Dheeraj

Posted by: Dheeraj Mehrotra at December 6, 2006 9:25 PM

I have a Windows 2000 machine and want to use a password for the screensaver. But a different one from the one i use when i login. How do i do that?

Posted by: Bert at February 22, 2007 12:47 PM

Can anyone explain why with Window XP Pro the screensaver will not activate at the pre-set time

No matter what I have done I cannot get it to work.

Glen

Posted by: Glen at February 26, 2007 2:35 PM

I forgot all my passwords and i tried safemode and im wondering if anyone knows any backdoors to skip the login screen for Windows XP

Posted by: John at March 6, 2007 10:25 AM

I have the same problem as the ORIGINAL post. But the password is not the screensaver password, its the logon password, essentially the screensaver locks the keyboard, so you hve to use the logon password to re-login to get back to any work...

This is a good idea, but currently only one pc is doing it so i would like to set this up on others.... but i cant remember where the setting is... i thought it was in gpedit, but i cannot find it!
Any help would be appreciated!

Posted by: Pete at August 9, 2007 4:46 AM

My pc suddenly started asking me for administartor password when I never set one up,

no one else has access to it, what 's happening
can anyone help please?

Posted by: GEORGE at August 28, 2007 12:37 PM

If any of these problems are on computers that are networked in a business environment, then the domain controller is most likely setting these (or greying out the selection boxes)options, via Active Directory and Group Policies. You can not change the options, your network administrator has forced these actions. The "log on" and ScreenSaver lock out on Windows XP joined to a network domain, is the same thing.

Posted by: Dave at November 8, 2007 12:32 PM

Randomly my computer would ask for login password. Once I power down using shut off button. It goes away until some other time. On my desktop properties and under screensaver only thing I have is on resume Display welcome screen.

Posted by: ksquarep at November 15, 2007 5:20 AM

I want to change seeting in registry so that Screensaver should be disable, after domain login also.Please help me with some solution.

Posted by: Jimmy at March 27, 2008 12:06 AM

Posted by: Roy at May 8, 2008 12:05 PM

when i cut on my computer, now for about about a month, i am asked for a password and a login name before the computer takes me to the desktop.

How do I stop this from happen?

Posted by: Roosevelt Richmond at October 27, 2008 8:30 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!