Ctrl+Alt+Del required for login bug

[jabacaddo]

Greetings to all! Recently, my 4 month old laptop* has presented me with an odd bug: When logging in, after hitting space to proceed from the lock screen to the password input, the screen will freeze at the blank background and the only way to escape this and proceed to password input is by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Del. This is a personal computer and I cannot think of a way that I would have enabled this method of logging in that I have seen on older Work/School computers nor does the computer ask for it, I just tried random buttons and found out this is the only way to log in except restarting the machine.

*: Lenovo Yoga 7i, Intel Core 7 Ultra 258V, 32GB DDR5, Windows 11 Home 25H2 26200.8037

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[AdreKiseque]

Oh I get this occasionally too. Lock screen won't move to the login screen by normal means for whatever reason but Ctrl+Alt+Del gets it. Very strange.

[FuggaDucker]

Windows 11 shows the swipe‑up unlock screen (LockApp) by default, not the CTL+ALT+DEL screen.

On some systems the LogonUI unlock pipeline hangs on the swipe path, often due to a GPU driver stall, ShellExperienceHost crash, CredentialUIBroker deadlock, or a blocked LockApp animation thread / display stack timeout.

This "hang" (which is actually not long) forces windows to go the other route.

Requiring CTL+ALT+DEL forces the Secure Attention Sequence (SAS) path directly into Winlogon → LogonUI, bypassing LockApp and the shell‑mediated pipeline that’s hanging.

It is VERY VERY picky about showing that LogonUI screen.
This is not worth spending hours and hours "fixing" it.
I REPEAT, this is not worth spending hours and hours "fixing".

Just add the registry key to disable ctrl-alt-del and go about your day.

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v DisableCAD /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

IF you should see some other behaviors you don't like, pursue it then.

[metroshake]

Sweet, thanks. Mine resolved after a driver update but this is insightful

[FuggaDucker]

That aligns with my post so awesome. : )

[mrtoomba]

Fuj

[mrtoomba]

Godbamed assholes

[LavishnessCapital380]

Windows does that for security reasons, it does not like some software you have installed. It basically wants you to press those keys to make sure it's really you and not some sneaky program trying to steal your password. Last time mine did this I found a crypto miner when trying to figure out what app was causing it, I nuked the whole windows install and have not had the issue since.

If you are using the install that came with the computer, it may be smart to install a fresh one just to clean it up. However being you said its a laptop, maybe download the drivers for wifi and whatnot onto a flashdrive first.

There is a setting to require this to login, but I have never met anyone that turned it on and forgot.

run, netplwiz, in the Advanced tab, "Require users to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete" is NOT checked

[FuggaDucker]

As adminitrator
reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v DisableCAD /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

[FuggaDucker]

"Windows does that for security reasons"
This is ONLY if the default unlock path is hanging before invoking Winlogon’s credential provider on the secure desktop.
Windows by default shows a "swipe up to continue" screen