Disable Lock Screen Ctrl Alt Del 🔧 Step-by-Step Guide

Know What This Prompt Protects Before You Remove It

On some PCs — very common on office and domain-joined machines, and on Windows Server — the sign-in screen first shows "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to sign in" and only then offers the password box. That key combination is not decoration. Ctrl+Alt+Del is Windows' secure attention sequence: it is handled by Windows itself (Winlogon) and no ordinary program can intercept it or fake the screen that follows.

Requiring it therefore guarantees one thing: the password prompt you see after pressing it is the real Windows sign-in screen, not a look-alike login screen drawn by malware to quietly record your password. Disabling the requirement removes that guarantee in exchange for saving one key press.

Method 1 — Turn It Off with netplwiz

Press Win + R, type the command below and press Enter to open the advanced User Accounts window:

netplwiz

Open the Advanced tab. In the Secure sign-in section at the bottom, remove the tick from Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Click Apply, then OK, and restart the PC once — from the next sign-in onwards the password box appears directly, with no key press first.

Method 2 — Turn It Off with Local Security Policy

Press Win + R, type the command below and press Enter to open the Local Security Policy console:

secpol.msc

In the left pane, go to Security Settings → Local Policies → Security Options. In the right pane, double-click the policy named Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL, select Enabled, and click OK. The name reads backwards on purpose: enabling "do not require" is exactly what removes the prompt. Restart once to see it take effect.

Method 3 — Turn It Off in the Registry (DisableCAD)

Press Win + R, type the command below and press Enter, then approve the administrator prompt:

regedit

Navigate to the Winlogon key — you can paste this path into the Registry Editor's address bar:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

In the right pane, look for a value named DisableCAD. If it is not there, right-click an empty area, choose New → DWORD (32-bit) Value and name it exactly DisableCAD. Double-click it, set Value data to 1 and click OK. Close the Registry Editor and restart the PC.

Restart and Test the Sign-In Screen

After the restart, stop at the sign-in screen and check what it asks for. If the change worked, the password or PIN box is offered straight away — no "Press Ctrl+Alt+Del" message and no extra key press. Sign in normally and confirm everything else behaves as before.

If the prompt is still there, the method you used did not stick: try one of the other two methods, and on an office PC read the note in Step 6 — a domain policy is probably re-applying the requirement.

Undo — Turn the Secure Prompt Back On

Changed your mind? Reverse whichever method you used: tick Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete again in netplwiz, or set Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL back to Disabled or Not Configured in the security policy, or set the registry value DisableCAD to 0. Restart once and the secure prompt is back on the sign-in screen.