Automatically go to Welcome Screen in WinXP home every 10 minutes?

Question

The network admin at my school has his computer set up to lock after 10 minutes of idle time. I want to set up my computer (running Windows XP Home) to go to the welcome screen after 10 minutes of idle time. He said he found the file that Windows uses to take it into lock mode. Is there a file that Windows uses to bring up the Welcome screen? Can I access it and put it into a scheduled task?

Answer 1

I saw that you weren't getting any answers so I thought that I should try answering your question.

Well, what I'll suggest won't exactly be doing what you wanted but it will atleast lock your computer in your own specified time.

Right click on desktop and select Properties. Go over to the Screen Saver tab in the new window and then select a screen saver. Then, just beside it, you'll see an option called "On Resume, Password Protect". Check it. Set the time for the screen saver to come up.

Now, when your screen saver is on if you move your mouse or make any interaction with the computer, the screen saver will go away and you will be either shown the Welcome Screen OR a dialog box asking for your password. Here, you should enter the password for your account. To change what to show on resume, go to User Accounts in Control Panel and click on Change the way users log on and inside it click on the option Show Welcome Screen and also the option Enable Fast User Switching.

This way when your computer resumes from a screen saver it will prompt for a password.

But, the other better way is to do this. When you have to leave the computer's side for a few moments but also want it to be locked down, just press the Windows key + L and your computer will be locked. This way, you won't have to wait for the screen saver to show up to lock your computer.

Hope this helps.