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Auto Locking Windows on Login

On my primary computer (whose harddrive is encrypted) I always have Windows auto logging in to help with the bootup time. However, my bootup time can be rather slow; and if I needed to have my computer booted but locked, I had to wait for the login to complete so I could lock the computer. This has been becoming a nuisance lately when I need to get out of my house quickly in the morning.

For the solution I created a windows boot entry that auto locks the computer after logging the user in. This also requires a batch file, to run for the user on startup, to detect when this boot entry was selected. Here are the steps to create this setup:


  1. Create the new boot entry: In the windows command line, run: bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Lock on Startup"
    This creates a new boot option, duplicated from your currently selected boot option, in the boot menu labeled “Lock on Startup”.
  2. (Optional) Change the bootup timeout: In the windows command line, run: bcdedit /timeout 5
    Where 5 is a 5 second timeout.
  3. Create a batch file to run on login: In your start menu’s startup folder, add a batch file. You can name it anything as long as the extension is “.bat”.
    Add the following to the file: bcdedit /enum {current} | findstr /r /c:"description *Lock on Startup" && rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
    Note that there are 2 spaces in the description search string to replicate the regular expression's 1 or more quantifier “+”, since findstr only supports the 0 or more quantifier “*”.