Cant disable password protected lock screen in Windows 8.1 pro

[shogunofharlom]

I have been battling a bug for 2 years now with the password protection in the Windows 8.1 lock screen.
It cannot be disabled by simply turning it off in the power preferences or by even going into the group policy editor. It is a common bug. I am hoping someone else may know another trick. It is so annoying to have to unlock the password every time i step away for 15 minutes. I would normally just use windows key + L to lock my machine if I want.
Please don't give me common sense answers. I am not a noob. I would prefer answers only from people who have actually experienced this same problem, but will take intelligent answers from anyone.

 

[johnbl]

well I have to start with the obvious:
confirm that
control panel ->hardware and sound->power options->system settings
select the change settings that are currently unavailable
then on the password protection on wakeup
select the Don't require a password.
and save the changes.

is that already set?
(confirm that don't require a password is selected"
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-the second thing I would look for is a screen saver that invokes the password protection
control panel, screen saver setting dialog, make sure "on resume, display logon screen" is not checked.
(confirm that this is not checked)
- the third thing I would look for is are you logging into a domain controller? The admin for the domain controller can set group policy that will force the logon, it will override your defaults.
(confirm you are not logging into a domain controller. You get logged on and validated by your local machine)

- I guess the next basic thing I would confirm would be
run the local group policy editor (run gpedit.msc) (I have window 10 on my machine and they moved the options around)
see http://malwaretips.com/threads/how-to-disable-windows-8-auto-lock-feature-disable-lock-screen.12312/

confirm "Do not display the lock screen" is enabled (or not configured) I think if they are configured they will override the defaults. check the administrative templates->control panel->personalization does not have any setting pertaining to the lock screen to be used set.

Now assuming these are ok, I would look at the actual registry key to disable the autolock function, and delete the value and reenter the value myself
and make sure there is not a leading or trailing space in the name.
this shows where the key is located:
http://www.ehow.com/how_7166522_disable-auto-lock-workstation.html
(confirm the key is set correctly)
you might also look at the local group policy setting for:
"prompt for password on resume from hibernate/suspend" \system\power management
"password protect the screen saver" \control panel\personalization
"turn off password security in input panel" \windows components\tablet pc\input panel

well those are basic the first things I would look at. After that I would start using debugging tools to find the problem but most of the time it is just one of those mentioned above.

-you might have a corrupted theme installed/selected.
C:\Users\[Your user name]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows and delete Themes folder

you might consider creating another local account on your machine, configure it not to require the lock screen and see if it works as expected. (help to find out the nature of your problem and Isolate it from currently selected user settings)