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Windows 11 password on wake

My laptop seldom leaves my house. When I am not using it I close the lid to put it into sleep mode. I also close the lid when carrying it to another room (or perhaps into the backyard hammock). This causes a minor inconvenience as every time I open the lid I have to enter my password to unlock it. On my old (Windows 10) laptop I was able to turn this off but because Microsoft keeps changing the layout of the Settings app I had to Goggle to find out how to disable this in Windows 11. The new process was

  1. Open Settings
  2. Select Accounts
  3. Select Sign-in options
  4. Scroll down to Additional settings

Under Additional settings there is a section with the text If you've been away when should Windows require you to sign in again?" To the right of this is a drop-down box with the default text Every Time. According to Google (and Microsoft) I simply have to select a different option, like Never**.

That would be the case if the entire section were not greyed out and followed by the text Windows Hello is preventing some options from being displayed.

The recommended solution from Microsoft was to

  1. Install the latest version of Windows
  2. Apply all outstanding Windows updates
  3. Run the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit
  4. Run the built-in troubleshooter
  5. Remove Windows Hello and re-install it

Since I keep my laptop current I focused on Windows Hello. Specifically, Windows Hello is used to facilitate access via PIN, facial recognition, or fingerprint. Because my laptop has a fingerprint reader I didn't want to risk breaking it by uninstalling so kept looking.

The solution was in the command line tool, powercfg.exe. This built-in tool allows access to a wide range of setting unavailable through the Settings app. The simple fix, in my case, was to run two commands in an Admin shell.

powercfg /SETDCVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0
powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_NONE CONSOLELOCK 0

The first line disables automatic console locking when the machine is put into sleep mode when running off battery (DC). The second does the same when running non-battery (AC).

Now I can put my laptop to sleep and forego the password. If I want to lock and require a password I just press WINKEY+L. And I still have Windows Hello available. I have to wonder why this setting is disabled (greyed out) when it is clear that disabling the password requirement is obviously compatible with Windows Hello?

You may want to type "powercfg /?" to see the full list of options available.

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What’s a Merge Queue and Why Use It?

That’s a good question, isn’t it? Indeed, if it was only a little-known term a few months ago, merge queues are more and more talked about. Between announcements from leaders like GitHub and real technical solutions, merge queues are increasingly adopted by software development teams.

You will therefore dive into this topic to understand what a merge queue is, in what situations they are useful but also how they work in practice.