Turn Off Screen on Lock

Lock your PC, screen goes dark in 5 seconds. Come back, and you actually have time to type your password.

The problem

Let's say that you want your screen to go dark 5 seconds after Windows is locked. There is only one setting (VIDEOCONLOCK) that controls this on both occasions:

1. After you lock: you want it short, like 5 seconds, so the screen goes dark quickly
2. When you want to unlock: that same 5 seconds is all you get to start typing your password before the screen goes dark again

This can especially useful, if you are using a docking station, which often takes several seconds (up to 10-15) for the whole system to "wake up".

What this does

Flips VIDEOCONLOCK between a short and long value at the right time:

When	Timeout
You lock the PC	5 seconds (screen off fast)
You wake it to unlock	changed to 5 minutes (enough time to start typing your password)
You unlock	Back to 5 seconds for next time

Both values are configurable.

Under the hood it's three scheduled tasks and a PowerShell script that rewrite the setting on lock, wake, and unlock events. Nothing stays running in the background.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11 with Modern Standby (S0 Low Power Idle)
• PowerShell 5.1+
• Admin privileges (one-time, for install)

Install

1. Open PowerShell as Admin
2. cd to where you want the files to live (they stay there):

cd <your-folder>

3. Download and install the latest release:

irm https://github.com/michaliskon/Turn-off-screen-on-lock/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

The script verifies the download checksum before running.

Manual installation (inspect before running)

If you prefer to review the bootstrap script before execution:

Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/michaliskon/Turn-off-screen-on-lock/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 -OutFile install.ps1
Get-Content install.ps1

Then:

.\install.ps1

Configuration

Defaults:

• 5 seconds after lock
• 5 minutes on wake

Can be adjusted by editing the config file:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Turn-off-screen-on-lock\config.json

{
  "baselineTimeoutSeconds": 1,
  "wakeTimeoutSeconds": 300
}

Setting	Default	Description
baselineTimeoutSeconds	1	Seconds before the screen turns off after locking
wakeTimeoutSeconds	300	Seconds the screen stays on when waking to unlock

Both values must be integers between 1 and 86400 (24 hours).

The config file is created automatically during installation. Changes take effect on the next lock, unlock, or wake event -- no reinstall needed.

Uninstall

In case you want to uninstall:

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator
2. Run:

& "$env:TURN_OFF_SCREEN_ON_LOCK_UNINSTALL"

3. Once the uninstaller confirms success, you can delete the install folder.

Security Review

The security and reliability profiles chosen for this project are targeting personal use on trusted home machines.

Enterprise and public device usage have been included in the security review, which concluded that additional hardening is strongly recommended in such cases - see threat-model-v1.0.0.md for the related risks.

Documentation

See spec.md for the full design specification.

Human / AI 🤖 Contribution in this Project

Based on the project complexity and criticality, human oversight was kept to low/medium effort.

Complexity	Low
Criticality	Low

Activity split

Activity	Human	AI
Use case development	✔️	❌
Design	❌	✔️
Design review	✔️	❌
Coding	❌	✔️
Code review	❌	✔️
Functional testing	✔️	❌
Security analysis	❌	✔️
Security risk review	✔️	❌
Security risk remediation	❌	✔️
Deployment	✔️	✔️

LLMs used

Phase	LLM/coding assistant
PoC and initial development	ChatGPT
Maturing and release	Claude Code
Continuous security reviews and hardening	Claude Code
Final security reviews (release)	Claude Code, Codex, Gemini

Contributing

Bugs

Bug reports are welcome - please open an issue first using the "Bug report" template. No unsolicited PRs.

Security Vulnerabilities

Report security vulnerabilities in GitHub Security Advisories - see also SECURITY.md

• Security hardening for home use will be supported, provided the vulnerability can be demonstrated sufficiently.
• Security hardening relevant only for enterprise use will be supported, if there is enough community interest.
• Critical or high criticality vulnerabilities will always be investigated and responded to (and if possible remediated), regardless of usage or interest.

Features

All feature requests are welcome - please open an issue using the "Feature request" template.

• Feature requests for home use will be supported, considering a real use case can be exhibited.
• Feature requests for enterprise use will be supported, if there is enough community interest.

License

MIT