How to lock computer on entering wrong password ?

Ever thought of any feature which disables access to computer temporarily when wrong password is entered ? This article is all about the same feature, learn how to lock computer when wrong password is entered.

While you are not present someone who isn’t authorized might try to log into your computer. He will try to guess your password. But by using this Trick if any “unauthenticated’ guy tries to Log into your computer by ‘guessing’ password then you computer will get automatically locked for about one hour or time you wish for. Simply, When a wrong password is entered more than 2 times, your computer will not allow any one to login for about one hour or for the time you want it to be stay locked.

This Tutorial is divided into two broad sections :

1. For Windows 7 Ultimate
2. Via Command prompt (For Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium version and all the versions of Windows XP)

For Windows 7

To enable auto-lock security feature to make your computer automatically get locked, follow the given steps :

Step 1: Open Start menu
Step 2: In Search Box, type “Local Security Policy” without quotes(” marks) and hit enter
Step 3: Now Local Security Policy window will appear on your computer screen
Step 4; Double click on Account Policies which is present on the left side of window
Step 5: Next select Account Lockout Policy
By default this feature is not enabled
Step 6: Click twice on Account lockout threshold entry
Step 7: A new dialog box will appear, now enter the number of times an user can enter wrong password

For example, if you want to give only two chances to someone to enter correct password then you should type 2

To save setting enter the number of chances of entering password and than click on OK button

Step 8: Windows will ask you settings for Account lockout duration and the length of time to Reset account lockout counter. By default 30 minutes are selected; you can select another time, or go with the defaults by clicking OK.

That’s it!

Now whenever any one tries to enter password more than 2 times than your computer will not allow him or her to enter password again until the time period you have selected.
To Change setting, go through these steps Again.

Via Command Prompt

It is not visually easy to enable this security feature in version of Windows 7 other than Ultimate therefore to enable this feature in other versions of Windows, Command prompt should be used.

To enable auto-lock feature, follow the given steps:

Step 1: Run Command Prompt; Make sure you run it as Administrator, to do this first right click on Command Prompt icon and then select “Run as Administrator”
XP Users: Goto Start, Click on Run and type CMD and hit enter
Step 2: After you follow previous step, the Command Prompt window will appear on the screen
Step 3: To check your current settings type
net accounts
and press Enter key
4. Now type
net accounts /lockoutthreshold:2
and press Enter key

In above command, 2 represents number of times password is allowed to be entered
Step 5: To set time period for which computer will stay locked type

net accounts /lockoutduration:20

and hit Enter key

In above command, 20 represents the time period(20 Minutes) for which computer will stay locked when wrong password is entered.

That’s It !!

You can change 2 with number of chances password is allowed to enter with your choice.
You can also change 20 with time period of your choice, it is in minutes.

This is trick is very useful in condition when you are sure that someone may try to guess your password and ‘invade’ into your computer.

If you are facing any problem or want to share your experience, do comment below.