Windows 10 auto-logout on <5 minutes of inactivity

39

12

Have updated to windows 10 pro edition

In power options have sleep/turn off display - never when powered and 30/15 minutes when battery.

Computer is powered

Every time i go out for 1-2 minutes it go to login screen, broke all my opened ssh session etc.

Anyone have same? Any way fix it? Maybe there is somewhere logoff timeout option?

arheops

Posted 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Reputation: 977

1Have you checked the event log to see if you were logged out, or the system had an unexpected reboot? – Eris – 2015-08-09T23:28:25.193

1No, it not reboot. It just logoff, all applications are here and same state as before, just disconnected(seams like it go fast sleep mode). It is not one time behavour. That was 5 times over last hour. – arheops – 2015-08-09T23:34:15.030

1Checked windows event log. It show "The system is entering sleep.Sleep Reason: System Idle", by "kernel-power". However all settings in current scheme are "never" – arheops – 2015-08-09T23:37:48.790

Did you find a solution to your problem ? – Fabske – 2015-12-31T13:54:22.783

No, still same. – arheops – 2015-12-31T19:09:19.253

1I also have this problem. Suddenly appeared after new Win 10 update. – Stefan – 2018-01-02T13:22:40.677

Same problem, no solution. – Aleksei Omelaienko – 2018-12-13T22:02:17.527

Navigate inside the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\7516b95f-f776-4464-8c53-06167f40cc99\8EC4B3A5-6868-48c2-BE75-4F3044BE88A7 and change the Key "Attributes" to Value of 2. After that you can change "Console lock display off timeout" to your desired time span. (Restart may be required – Daniel Abou Chleih – 2019-10-04T14:00:49.617

Answers

34

This is most likely happening due to a hidden power option called System unattended sleep timeout. On my machine it was set to 2 minutes, which was mighty annoying, as it would cause behavior described by OP (sleep, wake-up, login screen, Event Viewer saying: "The system is entering sleep; Sleep Reason: System Idle"). You have to enable this option in registry before being able to change it.

From http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/windows-10-keeps-going-into-sleep-after-1-minute:

  1. Click on the windows icon
  2. Type regedit
  3. Right-click on regedit icon, click Run as administrator
  4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0
  5. Double click on Attributes
  6. Enter number 2.
  7. Go to Advanced power settings (click on Windows button, write power options, click on Power Options, in the selected plan click on the Change plan settings, click on the Change advanced power settings).
  8. Click on the Change settings that are currently unavailable
  9. Click Sleep, then System unattended sleep timeout, then change these settings from 2 Minutes to 20 for example.

This solved the issue for me.

predi

Posted 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Reputation: 804

Not think so. It go away with windows 10 updates, after some times(new update?) apear again. – arheops – 2016-08-02T15:16:25.730

@arheops, did you try this solution? – predi – 2016-08-02T15:21:05.293

At current moment it work ok. Last time was not ok 1 month ago. – arheops – 2016-08-02T19:49:35.260

Did not work. -1 – Gnemlock – 2017-11-22T23:48:27.430

I do not have key 238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\7bc4a2f9-d8fc-4469-b07b-33eb785aaca0 in my Win 10 registry :( – Mikael Chudinov – 2018-02-24T19:55:46.863

Good God, why is this so heavily obfuscated? How is a user meant to figure this out short of being a Microsoft dev? – Braden Best – 2018-03-13T00:40:30.263

1I'm sure they at Microsoft had a good reason to implement this nonsense – Arthur Tarasov – 2018-07-31T06:54:02.560

Wow how staggeringly dumb is this in an OS in 2018! This is stuff we have been able to control for DECADES. Has someone reported this to MS? – niico – 2018-12-20T16:32:03.903

14

There is a screen saver setting hidden in the old Control Panel from previous versions of Windows. To get to the setting, follow the steps below:

  1. Open the start menu up and search for "Control Panel"
  2. Go to "Appearance and Personalization"
  3. Click on "Change screen saver" underneath Personalization on the right (or search in the top right as the option appears to be gone in recent version of windows 10)
  4. Under Screen saver, there is an option to wait for "x" minutes to show the log off screen (See below)

If you uncheck the checkbox, you should be able to prevent your computer from logging off.

user3797758

Posted 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Reputation: 392

no,it is not. this one also disabled. – arheops – 2015-09-28T19:14:58.980

If this option is disabled, go to the group policy editor (gpedit.msc), then: User Configuration->Administrative Templates->Control Panel->Personalization And there you have the screen saver settings (note that "Enable Screen Saver" supersedes most of them) – Yaron Adler – 2018-11-13T18:21:59.533

This was it for me. I thought having the Screen Saver set to "None" would disable the logout but I guess you need to uncheck this as well. Thanks! – Joshua Pinter – 2019-01-17T22:32:57.277

1

For those of you that end up here and still experience Windows 10 locking the computer, even after following @predis answer: have a look in "Sign-in Options" by pressing WIN key then typing Sign-in Options, then scroll down to Dynamic Lock and un-check the Allow Windows to lock your device automatically when you're away-option. As in the picture below.

enter image description here

This option seems to superseed any option you have in Power Settings.

Elmo

Posted 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Reputation: 445

It is not solution. Disable lock is bad idea. – arheops – 2019-02-11T14:12:17.067

Really, please elaborate. – Elmo – 2019-02-11T15:35:50.863

Lock can be used for prevent authorized access. Lock used in most cases for sleep box. Question was not "how to disable lock", but "How make windows respect my choice" – arheops – 2019-02-11T17:39:14.420

1Yes, and for some (including me) this was the last setting (after changing all the above mentioned) that finally made it work. What you are asking for is just as "dangerous" as this. I don't see why you give me -1.. I mean, do you know that this setting actually do? – Elmo – 2019-02-12T07:49:50.700

0

Another possible answer: increase the sleep timeout.

enter image description here

Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options -> Change plan settings -> Change advanced power settings

Tonatio

Posted 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Reputation: 151

Not a case, sleep timeout was 30(i say in question) – arheops – 2018-12-28T01:11:30.920

1I don't have this settings in the plan options, I only have the 4 other things under "sleep" – Ferrybig – 2019-10-21T15:39:14.887

Asked: 2015-08-09T23:08:35.783

Viewed: 381 224 times

Active: 2019-02-11T10:25:24.823