This seems like a question that I should've easily found the answer to by now, and while there are similar questions, I haven't found any exactly like what I am looking for. Similar questions I can find talk about turning the screen off after x minutes, or turning a screensaver on, like this one. But that is not what I need.
Right now, after inactivity, the lock screen will come up in about 15 minutes. I want it to come up in more like 2 or 3 minutes (we have really tight security, and I get in trouble if I forget to lock it when I walk away - aka I will come back to find one of my coworkers has played a prank to teach me a lesson).
The only setting I can find, is for turning OFF the screen after x minutes, or for setting a screensaver. I don't want the monitor to dim or sleep and THEN lock, I just want it to lock but screen stay on, so I can more quickly put in my password and resume working. Otherwise I have to wake the monitor up and THEN ctrl+alt+del to unlock. When this is a frequent event, the extra step is annoying. Not only that, but if I set display to turn off after x minutes, wait, and the monitor goes to sleep, half the time it isn't also locking - I can move my mouse, the screen comes back on, and it's back at my desktop already, no lock screen. I am unable to add a screensaver (perhaps the company has it somehow disabled), so I can't add one and set a timer there.
Again, I don't want to turn off the display, and I don't want/can't add a screensaver... I just want to LOCK it after x minutes. Does such a setting not exist in Windows 8?