How to Completely Disable the ‘Lock Screen’ and Boot Directly to the Login Prompt in Windows 11

When you boot up a Windows 11 computer or wake it from sleep, the first thing you see is not a password field. Instead, you are greeted by the “Lock Screen”—a full-screen photograph (often dynamically downloaded via Windows Spotlight) that displays the current time and date in a large font. To actually log into your computer, you must first click the mouse, press a key, or swipe upward to dismiss this photograph, which finally reveals the actual password entry field beneath it.

Microsoft designed this screen to mimic the aesthetics of a locked smartphone or a tablet. However, for users on a traditional desktop PC or a workstation laptop, this mandatory lock screen represents an entirely useless, redundant extra click every single time they want to use their computer. If you want to shave seconds off your boot time and be presented immediately with your password prompt the moment your screen turns on, you must completely disable the Lock Screen via the Windows Registry.

Disabling the Lock Screen via Registry Editor

Because the Lock Screen is deeply integrated into the Windows 11 boot sequence, there is no simple graphical toggle to turn it off. You must create a specific registry key to bypass it.

1. Click the Start button, type regedit in the search bar, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. Click Yes if prompted by User Account Control (UAC).
3. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following path by expanding the folders in the left-hand sidebar:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
4. Right-click on the Windows folder, select New, and then select Key.
5. Name this new key Personalization and press Enter. (If a Personalization key already exists, simply click on it and skip this step).
6. Make sure the Personalization key you just created is highlighted in the left sidebar.
7. Right-click anywhere in the empty white space in the right-hand pane, select New, and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value.
8. Name this new value exactly NoLockScreen and press Enter.
9. Double-click the NoLockScreen value you just created.
10. In the “Value data” box, change the number from 0 to 1.
11. Click OK.

You can now safely close the Registry Editor. You do not even need to reboot your computer for this change to take effect. If you press Windows Key + L right now to lock your computer, your screen will instantly snap to the blurred password entry prompt, completely bypassing the massive clock and photograph.