Microsoft’s phone app can now remotely lock your Windows PC

One of the handier features on new cars is the ability to remotely unlock and start them. Microsoft is adding the opposite — the ability to remotely lock your PC — to its Windows toolkit.

Windows Central is reporting that it’s seeing an update to the Microsoft Link to Windows app on Android, whose latest update adds the ability to remotely lock your PC, even if you’re not nearby.

As the site notes, Windows already allows you to automatically lock your PC when you walk away, so it basically uses your phone’s Bluetooth connectivity as a “fence” of sorts. Go beyond that fence and Windows can lock your PC as a protective measure. If you don’t have that feature turned on, the Link to Windows app update allows you to manually lock your PC, especially if you’re going to be unexpectedly delayed.

Windows Central’s tests of the new app show that Microsoft is reorganizing some of Link to Windows’ functions in a more organized interface, too.

In general, the interaction between your Android phone and Windows has been relatively one-sided. On a PC, the Phone Link app provides an interface to share files, photos, texts, and more between your PC and the phone. The Link to Windows app has traditionally been pretty rudimentary, simply allowing you to specify whether you want Windows to be able to share certain files or connect to it as a hotspot.

Now, it sounds like Microsoft is beefing up its Android app, and the ability to remotely lock your PC sounds like a definite improvement. Look out for version 1.25071.165 or higher in the app to trigger the new feature.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld