I am going insane with end users! especially laptop users that don't log off then they take their machine off the network, battery goes low so machine powers down and they call me when they fire it back up because they don't know their password/ or password has expired! Please please! does somebody know of a way to automatically lock a Windows XP Machine, the same way a Server 2003 machine locks itself after a certain period? Preferably through Group Policy, but if I have to go to every computer it would still be comforting to know people will start using their grey matter around here... PS. sorry, I'm just a lil stark raving mad this morning!

Run Box > mmc > add snap in (Group Policy Editor) > Expand User Config > Expand Admin Templates > Expand Control Panel > Expand Display and click >Enable the bottom four(Screen Saver, ex. name, Pass Protect, SS Timeout).

How is password-protecting a GP screensaver going to alleviate the problem? If users forget their passwords, then they won't be able to unlock the desktop, which can cause loss of data because you'll have to log them off so that they can log back in with a password they "may" remember. Life's more painless for the brainless.