How to Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon

Control-Alt-Delete (the secure attention sequence) has been well-known for invoking security options and Task Manager. Control-Alt-Delete also has historically been used for sign-in to prevent spoofing issues. Here is how to enable Control-Alt-Delete on logon.

Method 1
Method 1 of 2:
Using a Special Command

  1. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 1
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    Press ⊞ Win+R. This opens the Run box.
  2. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 2
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    Type netplwiz. Then press ↵ Enter. This will take you to an advanced control panel that allows you to customize user account settings.
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    Under the Advanced tab, select the checkbox "Require users to press Control-Alt-Delete". Then click Apply or OK.
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    Lock your computer. Press ⊞ Win+L.
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    Press Control+Alt+Delete to unlock your computer. On tablets without keyboards, press either ⊞ Win+Power or Power+Volume down.

Method 2
Method 2 of 2:
Using the Security Policy Editor

  1. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 6
    1
    Press ⊞ Win+R. This opens the Run box.
  2. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 7
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    Type secpol.msc to open the security policy editor. Here, you will be able to manage all sorts of group policies and modify some registry keys without breaking your computer.
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    Select "Security options" under "Local policies". Then search for a policy named "Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL".
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    Right click on the policy, then choose Properties. You can also double click to open the properties.
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    Choose the "Disabled" radio box. Then click Apply or OK. Once doing that, you will not be able to use the netplwiz command. You will have to choose "Enabled" in these properties to disable Control-Alt-Delete.
  6. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 11
    6
    Lock your computer. Press ⊞ Win+L.
  7. Image titled Enable Control‐Alt‐Delete on Logon Step 12
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    Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to unlock your computer. On tablets without keyboards, press either ⊞ Win+Power or Power+Volume down.

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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, volunteer authors worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 8,778 times.
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Co-authors: 3
Updated: November 11, 2018
Views: 8,778
Categories: Windows