A screen that stays unlocked for ten minutes is ten minutes of open email. Two settings make Windows lock itself, and one of them works without a phone.
Set a **screen saver with password on resume** for the short term and a **dynamic lock** with your phone for the walk-away case. **Win + L** stays the fastest manual option.
Turning the display off is not the same as locking. The screen can go dark and any key brings the desktop back without a prompt unless the lock policy is set.
In the sign-in options, set **Require sign-in** to happen after a short period of inactivity. This is the setting that turns a blank screen into a locked session.
Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Require sign-inA screen saver with **On resume, display logon screen** locks after the idle minutes you choose. It is the older mechanism and still the most reliable one.
Settings > Personalisation > Lock screen > Screen saver settingsPair your phone over Bluetooth and enable dynamic lock. Windows locks about 30 seconds after the phone moves out of range, which covers the case where you walk off with the laptop open.
Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Dynamic lockClosing the lid should sleep and require a sign-in on wake. If the laptop resumes straight to the desktop, the require-sign-in setting above was never applied.
Control Panel > Power Options > Choose what closing the lid does**Win + L** locks instantly from anywhere. Train it before you stand up; the automatic settings are a net, not the plan.
Win + LThe require-sign-in setting is on **Never**. Set it to a few minutes and test again.
The phone is still in Bluetooth range. Move further away, or rely on the screen saver timeout instead.
The player does not declare itself as fullscreen media. Raise the timeout or use the player's own power settings.
Turn off notification content on the lock screen under Settings > System > Notifications.
Yes, reachable through the lock screen settings. It is unchanged from older Windows versions.
Only through policy or a scheduled task. The built-in settings use idle time, not wall clock time.
Set **Require sign-in** back to Never, disable dynamic lock and choose None as the screen saver. Nothing else changes.
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