annoying windows screen lock issue

[zimu]

having a very frustrating issue here.

my laptop seems to lock the screen after 15 minutes, requiring me to logon. it's annoying enough if i step away for 30 minutes, but this happens while i'm watching a movie / tv show too which is insanely annoying.

screen saver disabled in display properties. it seems to be controlled by group policy or something. tried going to gpedit / admin templates but there's no control panel option in there which if i'm not mistaken is where it puts settings.

any idea how to override this?

re: media player, using vlc media player, wasn't there some option to disable the screensaver from activating if its playing a video?

 

[Fardringle]

Windows Power Management is telling the laptop to go into standby mode and is set to require a password to "wake up" from standby.


If you don't want it to do this, open Power Options in the Control Panel, or right-click the Desktop, choose Properties, then click the Screensaver tab and then click the Power button. In the Power Options window, either change the time for System Standby, or go to the Advanced tab and remove the check from the box for "Prompt for password when computer resumes from standby" (or do both).

 

[zimu]

system is not configured to go into standby/hibernate. i've removed the prompt for password when computer resumes from standby, will see if that makes a difference!

 

[zimu]

no luck... still locks up after 15

 

[bruceb]

Check your settings in the Power Control Panel. Since you have a laptop there are settings for both Battery and also for on AC use and these can be set to turn off the monitor. Also if you have Group Policies on this laptop, it sounds like it is a work computer and the network admins may want the lock feature enabled for security. If that is the case, it will be hard to remove it.

 

[zimu]

it is a work pc, most likely a group policy update which i really need to override, or at least find some work around for - why can't vlc player prevent computer from "idling"?

 

[consumerwhore]

zimu,

I had the same/similar problem with my corporate desktop. What happens is that every time it boots, it polls some server and will reset all policies including registry settings to what has been set by IT. That overwrote my screensaver settings. So what I did is write a .reg file that deletes some keys related to policies but keeps my user settings for my screensaver.

Here's my .reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaverIsSecure"=-
"ScreenSaveTimeOut"=-
"ScreenSaveActive"=-
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoDispScrSavPage"=-

I gave it a companion .bat file:

"c:\windows\system32\regedt32.exe" /s "Reclaim screensaver.reg"

I linked that .bat in the Programs->Startup folder so that it gets run at every boot.

 

[zimu]

now THAT looks promising, considering those registry entries were set to what was evidently causing the issue. have just fixed them as per your instruction, lets see how this works out

thanks consumerwhore, i really do think this is the solution