How to Change Screen Saver Grace Period to Bypass Password Protection in Windows
When you turn on password protection of a screen saver, it is not effective immediately. There is a 5 second delay by default between the time that the screen saver locks the computer and the time that the password protection is established. During this screen saver grace period interval, you can use a key press or mouse movement to unlock the computer without having to type the password. This screen saver grace period is designed to minimize the disruption that results when the screen saver starts while the user is working.
This tutorial will show you how to change the screen saver grace period to how many seconds you want for all users in XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to change the screen saver grace period.
Here's How:
1 Press the Win + R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.
2 If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.
3 Browse to the key below in Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
4 In the right pane of the Winlogon key, double click/tap on the ScreenSaverGracePeriod DWORD to modify it. (see screenshot above)
The ScreenSaverGracePeriod DWORD is not there by default.
To add the ScreenSaverGracePeriod DWORD, right click or press and hold on an empty area in the right pane of the Winlogon key, click/tap on New, click/tap on DWORD (32-bit) Value, type ScreenSaverGracePeriod for the name, and press Enter to create it.
5 Select (dot) Decimal, enter a number between 0 and 2147483 for how many seconds of delay you want before screen saver password protection locks the computer, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)
0 (zero) seconds will give you no password protection delay for immediate password protection when the screen saver starts.
6 You can now close Registry Editor if you like.
That's it,
Shawn
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