There are any number of good ways to make your computer more secure. You can install anti-virus software, ad-blocking extensions for your web browsers, use secure passwords for all your online accounts, and lock down your computer so that others can’t access your files.
Of course, all those measures can make your computer a bit less “free” in that you may constantly find yourself entering passwords whenever you want to do something.
You can, on the other hand, go the other direction. You can configure Windows so that you don’t need to enter a password when you boot up. You can use a basic password for online accounts, and use it for all your accounts. You can configure Firefox so that it no longer checks each download for viruses. As you can imagine, while this may make using your computer more convenient, it definitely makes it less secure.
Today’s tip falls in the second category. We’ll show you how to turn off the Windows setting that requires you to enter your password when waking your computer up when it’s been hibernating. This is something we wouldn’t necessarily recommend for a computer in a work environment, when a co-worker could easily walk by, jiggle the mouse and see what you’re working on, but for a home computer, the convenience and the security aren’t necessarily linked.
The first step is top click on the Start Orb.
Now open the Control Panel. The link is in the right sidebar of the Start Menu.
Depending on how you have your control panel set up, you may see categories or a full list of all settings panels.
This is the full list using small icons.
This is the category view.
If you’re using Category view, simply click the Hardware and Sound category, then Require a password when the computer wakes, found under Power Options.
If, on the other hand, you have your control panel set to the full list view, click the Power Options link, then – from the sidebar – choose the Require a password on wakeup, as shown below.
Now that you’re there, you’ll need to click the Change settings that are currently unavailable link, beside the blue and yellow shield. This is a protected setting, as it does diminish how secure your computer is, so be careful. (You’ve been warned!)
Now that the setting is available, simply click the Don’t require a password radio button, then the Save changes button.
From now on, when waking your computer up from hibernating, you can get back to work immediately.