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This seems like a question that I should've easily found the answer to by now, and while there are similar questions, I haven't found any exactly like what I am looking for. Similar questions I can find talk about turning the screen off after x minutes, or turning a screensaver on, like this one. But that is not what I need.

Right now, after inactivity, the lock screen will come up in about 15 minutes. I want it to come up in more like 2 or 3 minutes (we have really tight security, and I get in trouble if I forget to lock it when I walk away - aka I will come back to find one of my coworkers has played a prank to teach me a lesson).

The only setting I can find, is for turning OFF the screen after x minutes, or for setting a screensaver. I don't want the monitor to dim or sleep and THEN lock, I just want it to lock but screen stay on, so I can more quickly put in my password and resume working. Otherwise I have to wake the monitor up and THEN ctrl+alt+del to unlock. When this is a frequent event, the extra step is annoying. Not only that, but if I set display to turn off after x minutes, wait, and the monitor goes to sleep, half the time it isn't also locking - I can move my mouse, the screen comes back on, and it's back at my desktop already, no lock screen. I am unable to add a screensaver (perhaps the company has it somehow disabled), so I can't add one and set a timer there.

Again, I don't want to turn off the display, and I don't want/can't add a screensaver... I just want to LOCK it after x minutes. Does such a setting not exist in Windows 8?

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EF0
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    Use Windows Key+L to lock your machine before walking away. This will lock the machine and leave the login screen showing. – DavidPostill May 29 '15 at 17:20
  • Thanks but I already do that. I am looking for something that does it automatically, so if I forget to do it, I am still reasonably covered. – EF0 May 29 '15 at 17:25
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    @EF0: Don't you have access to the [Lock screen settings under PC & devices](http://superuser.com/a/706278/138343)? If you want to change the display off timeout after lock, see [here](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2835052) and [here](http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-unlock-the-hidden-display-off-timeout-for-the-lock-screen-in-windows-8-and-windows-blue/). – Karan May 30 '15 at 06:39
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    Sombody smarter than me could possibly set that up as a task in task manager – Moab May 30 '15 at 12:32
  • @Karan no I don't. The way I read it, that's an 8.1 feature, and apparently I have only 8. I doubt my company would let me upgrade but maybe I'll ask them. I am upvoting you – EF0 Jun 01 '15 at 17:24
  • @EF0: It was just a comment so upvoting makes no difference. Anyway, seems to me you're restricted by your company's policies. At the very least if you can get them to unlock the screensaver setting then that will be helpful, and a lot less work than installing 8.1. I will say this though, 8.1 is recommended by MS to receive further updates and 10 is due next month, so you should try to convince them to upgrade to the former at least. – Karan Jun 01 '15 at 19:38
  • @Karan - Oops. Got distracted earlier and came back to find my half-completed comment had somehow posted. I meant to say I was upvoting your comment because it provided useful information; I now know I can do it in Windows 8... just not my _version_ of Windows 8 (ie; I need 8.1). The first post you linked to actually mentions a work around to be able to do it with regular 8, which I was able to do. Unfortunately while I have access to that local security policy setting, it doesn't seem to work. I set it for 120 seconds (2 minutes), idle, and 5 minutes later it still hasn't locked. – EF0 Jun 01 '15 at 19:48
  • I do think I am going to talk to my company admins - either to unlock the screensaver setting, or to let me upgrade to 8.1. When we have such strict security policies, this extra flexibility to make it _more_ secure would be great. – EF0 Jun 01 '15 at 19:53
  • @EF0: I agree. I don't see any reason for them to refuse your request (but you never do know with corporate IT, do you?!). If they don't want people to use garish screensavers they can choose to enable the Blank one and the option to display the logon screen when the screensaver is dismissed, then lock both settings so end users can't change them. – Karan Jun 01 '15 at 19:57

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