Screen Lock After Inactivity

[shads1031]

Hello,

What is the preferred method for locking a session after inactivity? On existing physical PCs, this was done by using the screensaver option or setting in Power Options, both of which are not recommended in virtual environments.

I'm interested in how others are handling this, as we don't want users leaving their machines unlocked when stepping away.

Thanks.

[anvr]

Hello,

We use Idlemonitor for this, after a specific time inactivity (mouse/keyboard input) program 'tsdiscon.exe' executes.

[shads1031]

Does this actually disconnect the session? We are looking to just kick the user back to the Windows Logon screen where they need to enter their password again (just locking the screen). None of the group policies to do this seem to work for us.

[MatthewDay]

Check out this link:

[SOLVED] Lock screen using Group Policy without setting a screen saver server 2012 - Active Director...

Essentially, you set the screen saver timeout to 10 or 15 minutes via GPO, then set the default screen saver to "None". The VM will lock without activating a screen saver and it will not disconnect the session. The user can simply come back to their machine and Ctrl Alt Delete and enter their password to get back in.

In fact, if you use the VMware OS Optimization Tool, there is a setting in there to tune the screen saver and lock time on the Parent Image for your desktop pool.

[anvr]

Yes, after 120 minutes tsdiscon.exe executes.