My computer will randomly go to the lock screen

samiam123 said:

I had this problem recently. Upgrading to Creator update didn't change anything. I tried the solutions here but nothing worked. I started looking at user accounts. In the GUI there was nothing unusual. Looking at user accounts from command prompt I found a user I did not create called "rose". That user did not show up in the GUI.

After disabling that user I did not have this problem anymore.

Do a search for "Disable local user account Windows 10"

So basically run command prompt as administrator and:

Code:

#To list users
net user

#If you find a user that doesn't look like it should be there like "rose", view details
net user "rose"

# To deactivate
net user "rose" /active:no

# To view more account details including activation status
wmic useraccount list full

If command prompt is not running as administrator you will not be able to deactivate accounts.

Details view shows last login time which corresponded to the last time my screen went to login.

Unfortunately, this was apparently not my problem. A day later it started doing it again. So I still don't know why this happens. I ran malware and rootkit scanners and nothing was found.

Now I am thinking maybe it's something to do with Google Chrome. Running out of other ideas.

I think I finally figured it out. It was still doing it even after I disabled the Win10 lock screen in group policy and in the registry.

It seems to have finally stopped after I removed the 3389 port forward in my router. I have Win10 Pro with Remote Desktop enabled. So probably a bot or some hacker trying to log into my remote desktop. I guess that triggers a lock screen for some reason. Even when lock screen is disabled. That seems like some sort of bug but at least I figured it out...hopefully.

The problem is I can't use remote desktop now or will have to maybe put it on a different port. I have a secure password and they would never guess my username. So it would be nearly impossible for someone to get in that way. It's just that annoying lock screen when they try for whatever reason.

samiam123 said:

It seems to have finally stopped after I removed the 3389 port forward in my router. I have Win10 Pro with Remote Desktop enabled. So probably a bot or some hacker trying to log into my remote desktop. I guess that triggers a lock screen for some reason. Even when lock screen is disabled. That seems like some sort of bug but at least I figured it out...hopefully.

Not sure what you mean by "lock screen is disabled". Apparently there's some terminological mix-up involved here, i.e. which specific screen you call "lock screen".

The original poster was complaining about their computer periodically asking them to re-enter their Windows account password. This screen is what they called "lock screen". And no, it is not possible to "disable" this lock screen. It is a fundamental and essential feature of the OS. What you can do is set up auto-login after boot, which will bypass the lock screen at boot time. But it won't "disable" it. You will still get to the lock screen when you logoff from your Windows account.

Meanwhile, your explanation with someone trying to log in through Remote Desktop sounds fairly plausible.

However, Windows does not normally lock out the current interactive user when some other user is trying to login through RD. Windows will always warn the current interactive user about the other login attempt and ask the current user to either allow the switch to RD session or reject it (with 30 seconds time-out, after which it will lock the interactive account and allow the remote user to login). And apparently nothing like that happens in this scenario.

The only way for a remote RD user to instantly kick out the current interactive user is when the remote user is also you. I.e. the remote RD user is trying to login under your credentials: they know your user name and they know your password. If that's the case, then one thing to try would be to change your password and see whether this strange behavior stops.

Also, you said that you stopped forwarding port 3389. A more interesting thing to try would be to keep 3389 forwarded, but disable RD access in System Properties. Would that fix the problem?

Another interesting thing to try would be to stop forwarding 3389, but instead forward another external port (say, 7090) to local port 3389. Would that fix the problem?

Updated to fall creators update and starting going to lock screen again after 15 minutes