How to: Disable Password After Sleep/Wake

Numerous users of Windows (7/8/8.1 and 10) have complained of their respective systems not accepting their passwords upon waking up from Sleep mode or Hibernation mode, this is usually caused by wifi connectivity issues. The aim of this guide is to resolve their issues with logging in by disabling the password requirement after sleep/wake. In such cases, the system manages to recognize the user’s password and grant them access once it has been rebooted, but you can definitely see how not being able to login to your windows after putting it to sleep or on hibernation mode can be a massive problem. Apparently, this issue is caused by a glitch in Windows. Although this problem is not extremely widespread, it is quite significant nonetheless.

In this guide, we will see how to disable the password after sleep/wake/hibernation to get rid of the password issue altogether and to disable it for those who don’t want to have to type in the password every time the system wakes up from sleep.

For Windows Users:

Use the Windows 10 Settings Menu

For many of the basic system users, a user can turn off the password for Windows 10 wakeup by using the Settings menu.

1. Right-click Windows and select Settings.
2. Now open Accounts and in the left pane, head to Sign-in Options.
3. Then, in Require Sign-in section, set the dropdown to Never. Keep in mind if your system supports Modern Standby, then this option may not be available.
4. Now check if the password is disabled on waking from sleep.

If the dropdown in the Require Sign-in section is greyed out, check if changing the user password enables the dropdown.

Use the Windows 11 Settings Menu

To remove “authentication is required when my computer wakes from sleep” on a Windows 11 PC, you may try the method below:

1. Right-click Windows and open Settings.
2. Now, in the left pane, head to the Accounts tab, and in the right pane, open Sign-in Options.
3. Then expand Additional Settings and set the dropdown of if You’ve Been Away, When Should Windows Should Require You to Sign-in Again to Never. Users with Modern Standby may see different options.
4. Now restart your PC and upon restart, check if the password on the system’s wake-up from sleep is disabled.

Use the Power Options in the Control Panel

1. Click the Start button located on the lower left corner, type Power Options in the search bar and then choose Power Options from the results displayed. (The image is created on Windows 10, but the steps are same for Windows 8/8.1 and 7 as well)
2. Then tap/click on Change Plan Settings; for your chosen Power Plan.
3. Then, Tap/Click on Change advanced power settings at the bottom.
4. In the Power Options dialog that opens, tap on Change settings that are currently unavailable to activate administrative privileges. Set the setting for Require a password on wakeup to No.
5. Tap on Apply. Tap on OK. This should now disable the Password Requirement after the system has woken up from sleep or hibernation. However, if you change your Power Plan; then you will need to re-do this setting since they are profile-based and each Power Plan is different. On my system, it is Balanced, if I change it to High Performance; I will need to re-do the same steps to disable it.

Use the User Accounts in the Windows Control Panel

If a user account is set to enter a user name and password to use the computer, then that setting may override the above-mentioned settings and keep asking the user to enter the password when waking up from sleep.

1. Right-click Windows and select Run.
2. Now execute the following:

   netplwiz

   
3. Then uncheck the User Must Enter a User Name and Password to Use This Computer and click on Apply/OK.
4. Now restart your system and upon restart, check if the password requirement on the system wake-up is disabled.

Use the Command Prompt to Disable the Password on Waking from Sleep

If the Settings or Power Options method did not work or a CLI (Command Line Interface) happy geek wants to use a CLI-based method, then a user can turn off the wakeup password by using the Windows Command Prompt.

1. Click Windows, search for Command Prompt, right-click on it, and select Run as Administrator. Windows 11 users may launch Windows Terminal as administrator.
2. Now execute the following to disable the password requirement on the battery:

   powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0

   
3. Then execute the following to disable the password requirement when plugged in:

   powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0

   
4. Afterward, check if the password requirement on the system’s wakeup is disabled.

Keep in mind that if you want to disable the password when the system awakes from sleep on many systems, then creating a batch file with the above commands will make things quite easy.

In case, you ever want to enable the password requirement, then you may execute the following (one by one):

For Battery:

powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0

When Plugged-in

powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0

Edit the Relevant Registry Entries in Windows 10 and Windows 11

If a user fails to disable the password by using the above methods, then a registry entry may be causing the issue, and a user may turn off the lock screen on Windows 10 after sleep mode by editing the relevant registry entries.

Warning:

Advance with utmost care and at your own risk as editing the system’s registry is a skillful task and if anything goes wrong, you may cause undying damage to your system/data.

1. Click Windows, search for Registry Editor, right-click on its result, and select Run as Administrator.
2. Now navigate to the following path:

   Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\

3. Then, in the right pane, right-click on Microsoft and select New>> Key.
4. Now enter the name of the new key as Power and right-click on Power.
5. Then select New>>Key and enter the name of the new key as the PowerSettings.
6. Now, create another key under the PowerSettings key and name it as 0e796bdb-100d-47d6-a2d5-f7d2daa51f51.
7. Afterward, right-click on the 0e796bdb-100d-47d6-a2d5-f7d2daa51f51 key and select New>> Dword (32-bit) Value.
8. Then enter the name of the value as DCSettingIndex and double-click on it.
9. Now set its value as 0 and click OK.
10. Again, right-click on the PowerSettings key and select New Dword (32-bit) Value.
11. Then name the key as ACSettingIndex and set its value to 0.
12. Now close the editor and restart your PC.
13. Upon restart, check if the password requirement is disabled when the PC wakes from sleep.

Use the Group Policy Editor to Disable the Password on the System’s Wake-up

If the above methods did not work, then a group policy (group policy settings override the system’s registry values) may be restricting a user from disabling the password requirement on the system’s wake-up, and disabling the same may solve the problem. Windows Home users may have to install Group Policy Editor. Keep in mind this will affect all the users of the machine, not just the current user.

1. Click Windows, search for Group Policy, right-click on Edit Group Policy, and select Run as Administrator.
2. Now, in the left pane of the Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following path:

   Computer Configuration>> Administrative Templates>> System>> Power Management>> Sleep Settings

3. Then, in the right pane, double-click on Require a Password When a Computer Wakes (On Battery) and select Disabled.
4. Now apply the changes made and double-click on Require a Password When a Computer Wakes (Plugged in).
5. Then select Disabled and apply the changes made.
6. Afterward, check if the password requirement issue is cleared.

Disable Password on a Modern Standby Supported System

If a system supports modern standby, then a user may fail to disable the password on such a system with the above-mentioned methods. So, firstly, let us check if the system is modern standby supported or not. To do so, launch Command Prompt as Administrator and execute the following in it:

powercfg -a

If the output showed any one of the following is available, then the system supports the Modern Standby:

Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Connected

Standby (S0 Low Power Idle) Network Disconnected

In this case, check if disabling the Modern Standby solves the problem.

If not, then you may edit the system registry to disable the system’s wakeup password. To do so,

1. Open the Registry Editor as Administrator and navigate to the following path:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

2. Now, in the left pane, right-click on Desktop and select New>> Dword (32-bit) Value.
3. Then name the key as DelayLockInterval and double-click on it.
4. Now set the value of the key as ffffffff and click OK.
5. Then exit the editor and restart your system.
6. Upon restart, check if the system’s wakeup password is disabled.

If none of the above worked, then you may either disable the lock screen (strictly not recommended) or check if a work or school policy is not causing the issue.

For Mac Users

1. Launch Mac’s System Preferences and open Security & Privacy.
2. Now in the General tab, uncheck Require Password [time] After Sleep or Screen Saver Begins.
   
3. Then, on the pop-up of Are You Sure You Want to Turn Off Screen Lock, click Turn Off Screen Lock and that will disable the password after waking from sleep on a Mac.

For Ubuntu Users

1. Launch the Ubuntu’s Settings and in the left pane, head to the Privacy tab.
2. Now head to the Screen Lock tab and in the right pane, disable Lock Screen on Suspend.
3. Then hopefully, the password requirement after sleep is disabled on the Linux distro.

The CLI (Command Line Interface) happy geeks may use the following in the Ubuntu BASH to disable screen lock on the system suspension:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver ubuntu-lock-on-suspend false

A Security Concern

As a user has disabled the password on the system’s wakeup from sleep, that may make a system more vulnerable to a security incident. As a piece of advice, you may set up a smart lock on your system, so, when you are away from your system, it gets locked.