14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is working on a new Windows 10 feature that automatically locks the PC when you are away, thus trying to add a new security layer to the operating system without the need for manually triggering the password screen/lock screen.
Called “Dynamic Lock,” the new feature makes its debut in Windows 10 build 15002, which is available for the Fast ring exclusively at this point, and is projected to become available for everyone with the release of the Creators Update in April 2017.
According to the description provided by Microsoft in the Settings app, Dynamic Lock can “allow Windows to detect when you’re away and automatically lock the device.”
The feature is available in the Settings app > Accounts > Sign-in options > Dynamic Lock, and comes with no settings, so you can simply toggle it on or off.
At this point, it’s not yet clear how exactly this new feature works because Microsoft hasn’t provided any documentation for it and Dona Sarkar, the head of the Windows Insider program, hasn’t mentioned it in the announcement when the new build went live.
How it could work
There’s a chance that Dynamic Lock could use the Windows Hello camera to detect when you move away from the PC and thus lock the PC, but for the moment, it turns out that it can be enabled even without Windows Hello configured on the computer.
On the other hand, there’s a possibility that this feature is tied to user activity, so whenever the system goes idle after a certain amount of time, it could automatically lock down the device.
Without documentation and information provided by Microsoft, this is just a guess right now, and although we’ve enabled this feature on our testing system, no lock occurred when we were away from the computer.
It goes without saying, however, that such a feature would really be helpful, especially at the office when you frequently leave the desk or move to a different computer.
More configuration options, as well as a wizard that would let you properly set up the feature (as is the case with Windows Hello) would definitely come in handy, but given the fact that Dynamic Lock is still in its early days, such improvements are expected before the Creators Update goes live to stable Windows 10 users in April.