Windows repeatedly locks me out in the home screen

Question

Windows repeatedly locks me out in the home screen

Christoph Verstraeten 0

Windows has locked me out of my PC multiple times when starting it. I get the screen below after inputting my PIN.

1000014541

As I need to wait 2 hours for it to unlock, you can imagine this is not exactly a pleasant experience. Could you please point me to where I can disable this "feature"? There is no point at which I would want to be locked out of my computer, even if it has restarted multiple times.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

GsN5034 - IA 78,520 Independent Advisor

Hello,

Click Power > Sleep. And wake up your computer.
Or restart your computer.
Before typing in your PIN, click the 'I forgot my PIN' option on the sign-in screen and follow the prompts to reset it.

User's image

See if this quick workaround helps.

If you're using a local account, you can then disable this feature by going into Local Security Policy.

Then, expand Security Settings> Account lockout policy.

Change the Account lockout threshold to 0.

(You can set the value up to 999). 0 will disable the Account lockout threshold policy.

User's image

Note: This change only works if you are using a local account. I don't think you can prevent it for a Microsoft account.

Christoph Verstraeten 0 Reputation points

2026-10-13T10:31:05.7133333+00:00

Thank you for your answer @GsN5034 - IA ,

Unfortunately, I've only put in an alternate email address, to which Microsoft refuses to mail a code to login (I only have 1 other address, so I'm sure I put the correct one). I therefore still cannot login. It also seems I have made an online account, even though I would never consciously make it so I cannot unlock my PC without being connected to the internet.

I guess I'll finally have to switch to Linux. At least they let you choose which malware and other nonsense you install, and Linus protects their code base from AI generated garbage.

Thank you again for your help and time though, I truly appreciate it.

Answer 2

Christoph Verstraeten 0

Thank you for your answer @GsN5034 - IA ,

Unfortunately, I've only put in an alternate email address, to which Microsoft refuses to mail a code to login (I only have 1 other address, so I'm sure I put the correct one). I therefore still cannot login. It also seems I have made an online account, even though I would never consciously make it so I cannot unlock my PC without being connected to the internet.

I guess I'll finally have to switch to Linux. At least they let you choose which malware and other nonsense you install, and Linus protects their code base from AI generated garbage.

Thank you again for your help and time though, I truly appreciate it.

GsN5034 - IA 78,520 Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-10-13T10:37:49.57+00:00

Hello,

I totally understand your concern here.

Did you check the junk or spam email folders to see if the verification code from Microsoft Ended up there? or

Could you please check whether you can sign in to the security settings page of your Microsoft account?

https://account.live.com/proofs/Manage

If you can sign in with your Microsoft account here, you should be able to manage the recovery methods. You can add a new method to verify your identity.

During the PIN reset process, you can use the new method to verify your identity.

*You can also add an authenticator app to verify your identity.
Christoph Verstraeten 0 Reputation points

2026-10-13T10:48:00.84+00:00

There's nothing in my spam folder unfortunately