Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10  

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10

    How to Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10
    Published by
    11 Sep 2021
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10


    It's important to keep your PC as secure as possible. One way to do this is to enable secure sign-in, which requires users to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete on the lock screen before signing in. This guarantees that the authentic Windows sign-in screen appears, protecting the system from programs that mimic a sign-in to retrieve password information.

    This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable secure sign-in to require users to press Ctrl + Alt + Delete on the lock screen before signing in to Windows 10.

    You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to enable or disable secure sign-in.

    If you enable secure sign-in, the default lock screen will show at startup, and the slide show (if turned on) will no longer play for all users.



    Contents

    • Option One: To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in in netplwiz
    • Option Two: To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in in Local Security Policy
    • Option Three: To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in using a REG file



    EXAMPLE: Lock screen with Ctrl+Alt+Delete secure sign-in enabled
    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-ctrl-alt-delete_lock_screen.jpg






    OPTION ONE

    To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in in netplwiz


    1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type netplwiz into Run, and click/tap on OK.

    2 Click/tap on the Advanced tab, and check (on) or uncheck (off) the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete box under Secure sign-in for what you want set, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

    If the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete setting is grayed out, then it means that Option Three below is set overriding it.

    You can use Option Two below to ungray the Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete setting.

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-secure_sign-.png







    OPTION TWO

    To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in in Local Security Policy


    This option is not available in the Windows 10 Home edition since Local Security Policy is not included.

    Windows 10 Home PCs can use Option One or Option Three instead.

    Using Option Three below to disable will reset this security policy back to Not Defined.


    1 Open the Local Security Policy editor.

    2 In the left pane, expand Local Policies, and click/tap on Security Options to open it. (see screenshot below)

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-secure_sign_in_secpol-1.png

    3 In the right pane of Security Options, double click/tap on Interactive Logon: Do not required CTRL+ALT+DEL to open it's properties. (see screenshot above)

    4 Select (dot) Enabled (off) or Disabled (on) for what you want set, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-secure_sign_in_secpol-2.png

    5 You can now close Local Security Policy if you like.






    OPTION THREE

    To Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in using a REG file


    The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

    DisableCAD DWORD

    0 = Enable
    1 = Disable

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
    "DisableCAD"=-

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
    "DisableCAD"=-

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


    1 Do step 2 or step 3 below for what you would like to do.


    2 To Enable Secure Sign-in

    A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

    Enable_lock_screen_Ctrl+Alt+Del_Secure_sign-in_for_all_users.reg

    Download


    3 To Disable Secure Sign-in

    This is the default setting.

    A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

    Disable_lock_screen_Ctrl+Alt+Del_Secure_sign-in_for_all_users.reg

    Download

    4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

    5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

    6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

    7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


    That's it,
    Shawn Brink






  1. Posts : 20
    Win 10 Enterprise
       #1

    Hi,

    Does anyone knows how to disable "use the Windows Security button" message?

    From what I understand this is specifically designed for tablets with no physical keyboard. I enabled secure Sign-In for a laptop that has no such button, but is equipped with a touchscreen - I suspect this message appears because of the touchscreen?

    Thank you!

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-snag-0047.png
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 17
    Windows 10 Pro
       #2

    Hello again @Brink
    Thank you for this useful article. Can you please check that archives for REG files are OK because I can't open them after having unlocked them as Internet downloaded files. 7-Zip reports both of them as invalid.
    Thanks to confirm they are OK on your side or the upload valid ones.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Are the three key values required or just different ways to achieve the same purpose depending on the scope intended for enabling or disabling the secure sign-in?

    As I understand this:
    - [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] OR [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] => just for the currently logged user, two different keys but just one key value is needed
    - [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] =>for any account registered on the computer

    Thanks to confirm or correct me!
    Last edited by Peter Pan; 05 Aug 2022 at 02:59.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 18,044
    Win 10 Pro 64-bit v1909 - Build 18363 Custom ISO Install
       #3

    Hello @Peter Pan,

    Peter Pan said:
    Can you please check that archives for REG files are OK because I can't open them after having unlocked them as Internet downloaded files. 7-Zip reports both of them as invalid.
    I just checked this out for you.

    They downloaded OK, opened in Notepad and Notepad++ OK, and Merged OK.

    I did NOT have to Unlock them or use 7-Zip.

    I hope this helps.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 17
    Windows 10 Pro
       #4

    Hello @Paul Black, thank you for your prompt reply! So something is wrong on my side :-( I was quite sure that @Brink would have checked his uploaded files before making them available to us ;-)
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 915
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit 22H2 19045.3324
       #5

    Peter Pan said:
    Hello @Paul Black, thank you for your prompt reply! So something is wrong on my side :-( I was quite sure that @Brink would have checked his uploaded files before making them available to us ;-)
    It's not just you.

    I've seen this for a month where downloads from the [Download] buttons are being assigned a *.zip extension for some reason.

    Even when you right click 'Save Link As...' says *.reg it still downloads a *.zip file.

    If you rename them as *.reg they're fine. I saw the same behavior with *.bat download buttons recently.

    I'm on the latest Firefox release.

    Not sure what's at issue here:

    Enable or Disable Secure Sign-in with Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows 10-downloadssavedaszip..jpg
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 17
    Windows 10 Pro
       #6

    Farvatten said:
    It's not just you.

    I've seen this for a month where downloads from the [Download] buttons are being assigned a *.zip extension for some reason.

    Even when you right click 'Save Link As...' says *.reg it still downloads a *.zip file.

    If you rename them as *.reg they're fine. I saw the same behavior with *.bat download buttons recently.

    I'm on the latest Firefox release.

    Not sure what's at issue here:
    Thanks a lot @Farvatten, I am also on the last version of Firefox and the same behavior does seem to occur on my side. Renaming both downloads with the .reg extension resolved this issue. Surely a Mozilla bug to be fixed.

    Apart from this issue, I don't find the way Windows manages this EnableCAD / DisableCAD setting very clear because of the three options to do it and how they are related or not. I will share my results in another post.
    Last edited by Peter Pan; 07 Aug 2022 at 02:34. Reason: typo, I'm a not an English native speaker :-)
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 68,668
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Glad you all got it sorted.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 17
    Windows 10 Pro
       #8

    My results about editing the DisableCAD value in both registry keys


    Well I can confirm that the three options are correctly related after having seen any setting by an option not to be always correctly reflected with another option. Example: After changing a value registry (option 3), I had to close and restart the local security policy editor (option 2) to see the value really changed.

    Apart from that, on my W10 21H2 computer, any change of the registry value "DisableCad" (exact letter case) of the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon] does not seem to has any effect. Only the value "DisableCAD" (exact letter case) of the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] applies the intended behavior.

    I did not check if it works the same for the currently logged user with the registry hive HKCU.
    Last edited by Peter Pan; 07 Aug 2022 at 03:00. Reason: more understandable I hope!
      My Computer


 

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