This computer is in use and has been locked issue

I have a problem on my mom's PC. She was online looking for some information and then this dialog box came up about the computer being locked. I looked online about this issue and did not find much that was useful. I set up this PC for her and we did not set any kind of password. I use passwords on the PC's that I have and have never experienced this issue.

She said that she got it to go away by just hitting enter. The username was owner and she did not type a password. She also said that internet explorer never went away this box was overlaid on it.

On Windows XP, I know how to lock my computer manually. When doing that, it locks your computer by setting the screen to the Welcome screen, where you need to login to the username and enter the password.

The weirdest thing about it, is the way it locks. It is not locking by going to the welcome screen - like it does manually. Instead, the wallpaper stays in the background, but a box overlays it saying stuff like 'this computer is in use and has been locked' and requires me to enter my username and password to unlock it.

Why is it automatically locking? How can I get it to go away?

Thanks.

 

Could be in the screensavers section. Right click on an empty spot on the desktop, click on Properties from the menu, click on the ScreenSavers tab, uncheck "Password Protected" if it's checked when you get there.

.bh.

 

Hi thanks for your reply. I thought of that after making the post and I also thought of the advanced tab under power options, but neither one was checked. As far as I know this is the first time this has happened to her. Any other ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

Are you saying that she was actively using the computer and then it locked? It certainly sounds like that's what you're saying. Locking because of the screensaver should only happen if there has been nothing recognisable as activity on the computer for the time delay set for the screensaver. I've sat reading something complex and thinking about it and had screensavers activate while I'm 'using' the computer but you have to be doing literally 'nothing' as far as the computer can tell, no mouse clicks, scrolling, etc.

But if this is happening while she's actively using it, it sounds more like a software issue or malware.

As to the wallpaper or welcome screen showing, there are settings that affect this. The settings can be found by opening User accounts from the Control Panel and clicking on Change the way users log on or off. If either Use the Welcome screen or Use Fast User Switching is unchecked, the wallpaper will show, overlaid with the login box. (Unchecking Use the Welcome screen disables Use Fast User Switching.)

I assume her login name is owner and if no password has been set, pressing Enter would log her back in. The password field would have been blank and that's, in effect, her password.

Is it possible that she's pressing the Windows key and the L sometimes by accident? That's a keyboard shortcut to lock the computer.

Lag may have caused IE to stay showing instead of the wallpaper showing. If there was only a short delay between it locking and her pressing Enter, the lag may have kept the wallpaper from being drawn.

That's about all I can offer at the moment - hope it helps.

 

I too am concerned that this might be a malware popup from a site she was on. If that happens again, tell her to close IE by right-clicking in the task bar and selecting close or use the key combination alt + F4 to close the browser. See if the window remains. If it doesn't it is a popup from a website. There are sites that try to trick you into clicking within the popup window. I usually tell people to shut down the browser - it is safer.

 

Good thinking and advice plodr and that's what she should be doing with all popup windows because sometimes the person who programmed the popup made the x in the top right corner do something other than close the window and the keyboard or taskbar closing is safe.

 

Thanks for the advice chookers. She was typing her name in a forum when the incident happened. Her last name begins with an L so she must have missed the shift key with her left hand and hit the windows key instead and the L bringing up that screen. I had her repeat that tonight and she said that is what must have happened because it brought up the same thing.

I really didn't think it was malware because I have her system really well protected following the great advice on this site. I have my systems well protected using the same advice, and have never had a problem.

Thanks for the tip plodr. That is great advice for all of us to follow. I have told her never to trust those popup windows. And chookers I never gave a thought the the x in the corner doing anything other than closing the window, but ya never know these days. There is so much garbage out there. So that is a great tip too.

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice.

 

Sounds like the mystery is solved. Pity that these keyboard shortcuts and things aren't somewhere obvious to make it easy to check them and see what someone might have done. I only came across that yesterday while I was checking to see why my XP kept bringing up the Task Manager instead of locking the computer.