HowTo faster unlocking in tablet mode for when tablet is on a flat surface?

[macmee]

when I'm home on my desktop I like to put my surface into tablet mode and rest it flat on my desk. the problem is windows hello obviously cant see me in this position so I have to unlock with a pin. this can be very slow because you first have to swipe windows hello up and away, tap a very small button for pin, then type your pin in.

if I only had to do this once every 30 minutes or so that would be fine but I want to be able to use the device for. few minutes, turn the screen off to do more work on the desktop, then hop back on the surface for a few minutes.

Anyway I was wondering if there's a way I can tell windows to disable the lock screen for the next hour, or if I can get a easier way to unlock the device for when my face isn't visible to windows hello

 

[sharpuser]

@macmee

Sometimes I suspend the lock screen when doing some file transfers on battery power (syncing folders with some network drives) so I may monitor the progress.

Here's what I do:

Windows 10 Pro
1. Start gpedit
2. Double-click: Administrative Templates, Control Panel, Personalization
3. Select "Do not display lock screen"

Insider's Preview / Creator's Update
1. Start regedit
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
3. If you don't have it already, create New, Key, Personalization
4. Double-click Personalization
5. New, DWORD (32-bit Value)
6. Name the DWORD NoLockScreen, then press Enter to give NoLockScreen a value of 1 .

You may exit the regedit utility. To resume Lock Screen normal behavior, change value of key ...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization\NoLockScreen

to 0 .

In other words, give this key a value of zero, or one. It does not matter whether this particular key is hexadecimal or decimal.

Note: This will only work when Windows has turned off the screen, not when the user presses the power button to turn off the screen. So you may want to adjust your Power settings accordingly.

 

[Wayne Orwig]

I have a lot of sunlight behind me. Windows hello only works about 1/3 of the time. I've wasted a lot of time with it. In the end, I just turned if off, and use PIN unlock. It is actually faster in my situation.

 

[sharpuser]

With the tweak above, the screen will resume with a simple key press, touchpad motion, or mouse wiggle.

 

[chekhonte]

I sometimes use paint programs in tablet mode and ended up getting a blue tooth keyboard for that an many more problems associated with using a laptop with out a keyboard. Not an elegant solution but it solved my problems.

would using the picture sign in be faster? I've personally never used it.

EDIT: tried the picture sign in, it should be a lot faster than having to go through the steps of going to the onscreen keyboard and then typing in your pin.