cannot disable lock screen

johnhoh · 09 Jun 2021

I've tried using Brink's reg file download to disable lock screen, also made the gpedit change to enable the setting "do not display lock screen", also used winaero tweakers' "disable lock screen" setting but none of them are working, I still get the lock screen when coming out of sleep. Fwiw, I also cannot delete the guest user profile, and when I go into settings>personalization>lock screens it says "some of these setting are hidden or managed by your organization". This build is from an image back up from six months ago that I just installed, and let windows bring updates on to date as of yesterday, its now build 19043.1052. Thanks for any advice.

One more thing, the settings app crashes anytime I do settings>accounts. If anyone thinks that is the issue I can post all the steps I've made to fix it, though none have worked. The powershell fix resulted in a message like "app xyz is in use and cannot be updated"

dalchina · 09 Jun 2021

Considering removing this:

some of these setting are hidden or managed by your organization

- you have set one or more group policies using the group policy editor

If so you can use that to check for configured group policies

OR
- you have modified the registry in some manner equivalent to a group policy.

OR
- some tweak tool has done this.

The first can be reset to default using a tutorial to reset group policies to default.

The second two cases do not respond to that method.

That is appears here:

settings>personalization>lock screens

might reflect the setting you've attempted.

the settings app crashes anytime I do settings>accounts.

The powershell fix resulted in a message like "app xyz is in use and cannot be updated"

I assume you mean you've tried reinstalling and re-registering the Settings app, as this is unclear.

Normally I'd suggest you compare what happens if you create a new user and log in as that user, but you are presumably unable to do that.

I suggest you undo any tweaks you can, see if you can eliminate this:

some of these setting are hidden or managed by your organization

and then perform an in-place upgrade repair install of 21H1 which keeps all apps and data using a 21H1 iso file- obtain using the MS media creation tool.

rt click the iso file
click Mount
open new drive letter created
double click setup.exe

and then advise what you see.

johnhoh · 09 Jun 2021

thanks for your help, here are my answers...

I just changed my gpedit tweaks back to default and in settings now no longer get the message "some of these setting are hidden or managed by your organization". But the brink reg file fix continues to not work, lock screen still appears after waking.

With regard to re-installing the settings app from powershell, when I run:

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers| Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}

.. it repeatedly flashes a message of "deployment completed" but also finishes with the messages in the attached pic.

I am able to create a new user using control panel. When I log onto that user and use Brink's disable lock screen reg file there, I still get the lock screen when awaking from sleep. Note that in this case I did not reboot after using the reg file though since I can't reboot right now.

Yesterday I tried an in place upgrade repair install of 21H1 and it progressed with the install but when it got to around 80% completed, the installation status window just suddenly disappeared leaving just the desktop icons. So I went into task manager to see if the install was actually still progressing and though the disk activity was very close to zero, the cpu activity was 15%. Should have written down the program name using the cpu but did not, though it was a very long name, 20 characters or so. I assumed it had to do with the the windows install so I just let it run for an hour. After an hour I felt like it was not going to finish (disk activity stayed near zero the whole time, cpu 15%) so I selected end-task in process manager and rebooted and the system would not reboot. I knew that might happen, but did not want to wait several hours. So at that point I just reloaded the image from 6 months ago and now I'm back to where I started when I made the first post. Am really trying to avoid a clean install.

dalchina · 09 Jun 2021

Given that the in-place upgrade repair apparently did not complete, this suggests something fundamental that needs to be resolved.. if indeed that's possible.

Run setupdiag.exe - free from MS - tutorial now available I believe - and report the results.

Try a few basic checks first:
a. Check your disk: Hard Disk Sentinel (includes SSDs) - excellent - trial remains usefully functional.
b. If ok run chkdsk c: /scan from an admin command prompt
c. If ok run sfc /SCANNOW similarly.

Report failures.
If all ok, ensure you have a current image (why is yours very old... restoring it will have taken any personal data back 6 months too...).
Reattempt the in-place upgrade repair but this time first:
- uninstall any 3rd party security software
- perform a clean boot
- if you get that far, choose NOT to accept updates. Indeed disconnect the internet.

johnhoh · 09 Jun 2021

I ran setupdiag from my desktop and it produces a blank output file called SetupDiag_9-Jun-2021.log and another file called setupdiag.exe.config that does not appear to be a log file. I could not find a tutorial for setupdiag, just that you are supposed to run it and then look at its log output

hdd sentinal reports that ssd state is perfect

chkdsk c: /scan reports that windows has scanned the file system and found no problems

sfc /scannow reports that errors were found and repaired, I'll attach the CBS.log

I have all data backed up nightly btw.

Bree · 09 Jun 2021

johnhoh said:

... I still get the lock screen when coming out of sleep...

When you get your other problems sorted out, this should do the trick:

Turn On or Off Require Sign-in on Wakeup in Windows 10

johnhoh · 09 Jun 2021

At this moment I am stuck at the same place as when I tried the earlier repair install. Here are the steps I just followed:

- First I uninstalled bitdefender (I use it for antivirus and MS defender for firewall).
- used the media creation tool to download win10 and make a bootable usb
- used msconfig and task manager to clean boot with no startup programs or non-microsoft services
- rebooted the machine after unplugging my router
- after booting, clicked on the usb drive and then on setup.exe
- followed the prompts for a win10 install while keeping programs and settings
- the installation proceeded smoothly, counting up to 86% completed, at which time it said "your system will reboot in a moment"
- a moment later the install program disappeared showing just my desktop with no tabs open in taskbar, stayed like that for a few minutes.
- so then I opened task manager to see if anything was running and it looks just like it did last time, DataStoreCacheDumpTool is taking up a lot of cpu, System is using a very small amount of disk, Antimalware Service Exectuable is using more memory than anything else. The pic shows details.

Last time I waited an hour at this point, then end-tasked the DataStoreCacheDumpTool and rebooted, only to get the MS "your machine is unable to boot" message, "please restart". Restarting did not help matters and I was also unable to repair the disk using a macrium boot fix usb I have on hand, so I ended up reloading my image backup from 1/2021. Any advice is welcome. I'm just sitting here hoping datastorecachedumptool will finish on its own.

dalchina · 09 Jun 2021

An in-place upgrade repair install is started AFTER you log in. It's not clear that's what you've actually done.

- after booting, clicked on the usb drive and then on setup.exe

You can use a bootable disk as source if you wish, but you then
- boot and log in as normal
- browse to the USB disk
- double click setup.exe

You need around 30Gb free on C: minimum.

Please also post a screenshot of your partitions using a 3rd party partition manager- NOT Disk Management.

johnhoh · 09 Jun 2021

Probably should have mentioned my machine automatically logs me in at bootup. So when I rebooted, it logged me in, then I browsed to the usb and clicked setup.exe. Here is a partition screenshot of my ssd using macrium. Am happy to use any other recommended program if this is not the detail we need

dacrone · 09 Jun 2021

johnhoh said:

Probably should have mentioned my machine automatically logs me in at bootup. So when I rebooted, it logged me in, then I browsed to the usb and clicked setup.exe. Here is a partition screenshot of my ssd using macrium. Am happy to use any other recommended program if this is not the detail we need

these are worth a shot if you want...

Reset Group Policy Settings to Default with Command Prompt

If you don’t know which policies you have modified, you can also use Windows Command Prompt to reset all Group Policy settings to default in Windows 10.
By deleting the Group Policy settings folder from your computer hard drive, you can reset all the policies to default. Check how to do it.

Click Start, type cmd, right-click Command Prompt app to choose Run as administrator. This will open elevated Command Prompt in Windows 10.
Next you can type the command: RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicy" in Command Prompt window, and hit Enter to run the command.
Continue to type this command: RD /S /Q "%WinDir%\System32\GroupPolicyUsers", and hit Enter.
Then you can type the command: gpupdate /force, and hit Enter to update the Group Policy settings. Or you can restart your Windows 10 computer to make these changes take effect.

after that, you can download winaero tweaker (easiest way) and go through settings to see whats checked on Boot/Login & Desktop categories. If you modded the registry the settings checkboxes will reflect said mods..