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Windows 10 Will Soon Lock Your PC When You Step Away From It (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Microsoft is working on a new Windows 10 feature that will automatically lock and secure a PC when the operating system detects someone has moved away from the machine. The feature is labelled as Dynamic Lock in recent test builds of Windows 10, and Windows Central reports that Microsoft refers to this as "Windows Goodbye" internally. Microsoft currently uses special Windows Hello cameras to let Windows 10 users log into a PC with just their face. Big corporations teach employees to use the winkey+L combination to lock machines when they're idle, but this new feature will make it an automatic process. It's not clear exactly how Microsoft will detect inactivity, but it's possible the company could use Windows Hello-compatible machines or detect idle activity and lock the machine accordingly. Windows can already be configured to do this after a set time period, but it appears Microsoft is streamlining this feature into a simple setting for anyone to enable. Microsoft is planning to deliver Dynamic Lock as part of the Windows 10 Creators Update, expected to arrive in April.
Meta+L before you step away.
I have even worked at places where not locking your computer when you are away from it is a fireable offence (after a few warnings).
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
While I agree it's smart to lockdown your workstation in a business environment, I've worked in some where this tech will be abused to time track employees who spent 3 minutes too long in the restroom.
That said, they already ran shitty 3rd party software that tracked mouse and keystrokes so maybe nothing changes. Oh man did we lose some developers who treated it as a challenge and scripted activity (poorly) while they were afk. I suppose there are probably some more clever devs plugging along with better scripting. Though if they are that clever they would have gotten the fuck out of that work environment.
The real killer tech will be the unskippable ads that 'helpfully' pause themselves while you don't have eyeballs on them, and resume when you're back at the computer...
This isn't a screen saver time out. This is presence detection. It won't wait a configured (10) minutes of inactivity to lock the screen. The camera "sees" the user and even knows which user it is seeing. The camera then locks the screen immediately when the user is not present.
I'm curious though, if this can be easily defeated with a picture of the user being used to unlock the PC?
This is going to be so good if they use webcams like for Hello. Which means they get to look at you 24/7 with your consent.
The camera "sees" the user and even knows which user it is seeing. The camera then locks the screen immediately when the user is not present.
How long before the computer "sees" the user and notifies the police that they can pick up their known dissident. I mean, really, given the kind of governance we're about to enter into, this (not to mention Alexa-like audio surveillance "features") are the last thing I'd want on any equipment in my home.
And no, I don't have anything to hide. But conversely, I also don't use the restroom in the middle of 5th Avenue. Privacy is a thing, even in a world full of morons who think it isn't.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
I'm guessing the idea is that this will be much quicker, like if you haven't touched the mouse or keyboard for like 10-60 seconds the camera will check if you're still sitting in front of it and if not lock the machine. I think this is a business winner, so many times I've seen laptops with aggressive screen savers being used in a meeting by someone presenting and it locks because the presenter was talking or taking questions or holding a discussion and not navigating. This way the machine could check yep he's still there, let's NOT lock the machine.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Windows 10 Will Soon Lock Your PC When You Step Away From It
Bloody hell, will it? Even though I'm running Windows 7/Centos 7? That's very clever.
Windows 10 will soon install itself on your PC when you step away from it, even though you are running Windows 7/Centos 7.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
but they are constantly monitoring/recording my movements.
I don't see any issues here, do you?
I'm not keen at having any more cameras pointed at me -- but if there was something very simple like an IR sensor that can detect presence/motion/etc, then this might be useful....
Evolution: love it or leave it
I think the idea is that if you are at your desk but idle (say, for example, you're on a long phone call with your chair tipped back and your feet on the desk), the computer won't lock down after X minutes of inactivity passes. But if you step away, it locks within seconds. You probably want to have some delay before locking, just in case you bend down to tie your shoe or something else where you are out of the view of the camera for a moment.
The problem with the typical timeout we've used for years is that it can leave the desktop vulnerable between the time you leave the computer and the timeout expires. Most places set the timeout to several minutes to avoid employee irritation of having to unlock their computers several times a day, just because they were doing something else even though the computer was never out of their sight. A timeout is, at best, a compromise between security and convenience.
This new method has the potential to improve BOTH security and convenience.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
My office computer is set to lock on wake and lock on screensaver, and some days I'll forget to win+L and come in to work the next morning, wiggle the mouse to wake the monitor, and the computer will not be locked.
This isn't new to Windows 10, either. My 8.1 laptop, when I open the lid there's a 50/50 chance it will automatically unlock itself. I open the lid, the screen turns on to the clearly labeled "This computer is locked" screen, which will then sometimes within a second or so slide up automatically without me touching a thing.
If it happened every single time then obviously I fucked up on the configuration, but when it only sometimes works, I'd like to know what the hell is going on.
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
Or is this another mandatory feature? Because I totally hate it when my screen locks every five seconds. I can decide on my own whether an environment is safe for leaving my screen unlocked or not.
Normally I wouldn't worry about something like this, but this is Microsoft we are talking about. They think they know my situation so much better than I do, they need to make this choice for me.