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Password protect the screensaver without locking?


sys6x

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Hi,

My boss just made a weird request...and I can't find a way to set it, so I'm asking y'all is it's even possible : in XP (SP2 Pro), he wants the workstations to be password protected when the screensaver activates, but without locking the session (in fact, he wants the users to avoid the alt-ctrl-delete thing...just a password)

In other words, if the user moves his mouse when the screensaver is on, it asks for a password, not for alt-ctrl-del

Thanks

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im a little confused here,what do you mean by alt+ctrl+delete? you mean that if they move mouse it asks for password and if they use alt+ctrl+delete in screensaver mode it wont? or it ask for password in screensaver mode and not in login mode when windows ask for username password?

well if you want your screensaver have password but not your windows logon you can automate the login so windows insert the password automaticly and set screensaver to requier password.for automating the logon you can use utilities like TUNEUP UTILITIES or using the windows xp group policy,though i cant tell you where exactly cause im on vista and dont have xp installed.

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Hi,

I certainly don't want to automate login. This is for security reasons.

For user productivity reasons, I got this request...

I believe nmX.Memnoch understood what I want but still, I'll give more details

In one of our GPOs, we require the users to press alt-ctrl-del before the main Windows login and then they can type their login/password

The problem is that there is another GPO that activates the screensaver after x minutes and we also set it to require this screensaver to be password protected. We do want it to require a password to come back to the session... but we don't want it to require an alt-ctrl-del to unlock the workstation.

If I disable the first GPO, I'm getting the expected behavior from the screensaver...but it doesn't require me to alt-ctrl-del at the main logon.

I begin to believe this might be a technet/scripting guy question... Or there is some possible tweak in the registry since I identified 2-3 keys related to the logon lock...but nothing related to a screensaver lock.

Hope this is easier to understand

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Not sure you can, but I'm curious as to why locking the workstation and having to press ctrl-alt-del is a problem? My users biggest complaint is the 15 minute time limit, they could care less about unlocking and logging in, they want the screen saver up only every 30 minutes or more.

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Why? Some [extremely] noob user requested us to remove it cuz it's an annoyance, it causes time loss, etc... and since it's a member of the direction...we have to check out. She said the same thing about the 15min screensaver thingy and because of this, it's now a delay of 1 hour...no comments

I don't think we can do it since I believe the screensaver password auth calls winlogon,which is used by the primary windows login...and the GPO is applied on winlogon

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I'm so sorry. :( The amount of time you will waste trying to find a solution will cost more than the time lost pressing ctrl-alt-del once an hour every day for a year, maybe more like a decade.

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well she still has to consult her piece of paper to know where are ctrl, alt and del...so it takes around 8-10seconds

I stopped looking...I'll just tell them there is no official way. The only way I MIGHT get an answer is from the scripting guy.

Thanks anyway hehe

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ok as there might not be an official way but i believe you still have one more chance to take,

what if you find an screensaver that has a built-in password protection? windows requier's you to do alt+ctrl+delete for entering WINDOWS username and password,but if the software itself has a password protection then you just have to enter the set password.

i did a little search and found one but havnt tried it myself but i guess it worth tryin: "SeaStorm 3D Screensaver"

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thanks for the suggestion, but uh..I'm not convinced about them being free of malware...and anyway it's not really professionnal hehe

Did you ever see computer problems due to the fact of not having the ctrl-alt-del thingy activated at Windows prompt?

I'm telling my boss we can't do this so..that'd be what they want...at their own risk

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Well...you won't be telling them a lie. Those two settings are connected...you can't disable one without the other.

Indeed, the "Interactive Logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL" group policy applies both to the main logon and the return from a password-protected screensaver.

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I used to work for a company where my boss would ask ridiculous requests, very much like what your boss is asking. It's called micro-management. Find another job, you will worry less and therefore get gray hairs at a much slower rate.

: )

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Who the heck cares about pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del? Why should it matter? It takes...

I just locked the computer (Winkey+L), pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del and unlocked the computer. In 5 seconds. Now come on. It takes less than a second to press Ctrl+Alt+Del. And there is no real way to do this no-ctrl+alt+del-for-unlocking-but-yes-for-logging-on thing as far as I know because it's controlled by whether you need to press it to log on. It's essentially the same process as logging on. Winlogon looks in the registry and sees that "disableCAD" is set to 0, so it requires Ctrl+Alt+Del.

As for setting your boss's screensaver time-out to an hour. WHAT?? :blink: I assume that he doesn't lock his computer when he gets up, right? Sheesh. In one hour, anyone could come by and steal sensitive data, change his settings... I always force a 15 minute screensaver time or less, and encourage users to always lock. 5 seconds is not a lot of time wasted, especially in comparison to how much time it wasted when computers are messed with. Lock your computers, people! Geez. My teachers started to get the idea when they'd leave their computer unlocked and I'd send an email from their email client to themselves with clear instructions as to how and why to lock their computers. They always wondered what who did that... yes, quite fun. :lol:

So yeah, if your boss gets P.O.'d about having a short timeout, tell him that a securty update from Microsoft makes that the longest you can wait now. I bet he'll believe you.

well she still has to consult her piece of paper to know where are ctrl, alt and del...so it takes around 8-10seconds

She needs one of these. :whistle:

Is this a he or a she? The original post said he but the quoted one said she. Or is it a... never mind. :wacko:

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