Locking your machine?

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In windows you just used to hit Windows + L and it would put the login screen infront of you but you still would be logged in so it effectively just stopped anyone touching your machine while you were away from it.

Is this possible with OS X?

Cheers
Liam
 
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Enable fast use switching and you can switch it to the login window if you walk away.
 
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Yeah, found it as soon as I posted it typically enough in another forum!

Cheers
Liam
 
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nice.. the search function prevails.
 

Jem


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Is there any way of making this a keypress though? I must say its one key sequence I do miss from the PC, just being able to quickly hit Windows-L (or Ctrl-Alt-Del-k on Win 2k).

I had a search around and couldn't find any reference to making this a keyboard shortcut... :(
 
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I have computer set up to require a password when recovering from sleep or screen saver. Then i made the top right corner == screensaver. So i just slide my mouse up and to the right and pow! screen locked and I am already walking away.
 

Jem


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Mmmm I considered that one but it would annoy me if I'm reading a web page (for instance) and it goes into screen saver and I'd have to log on again.

There MUST be a way of doing this on a keypress?????
 

Jem


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See I don't want to logout... I just want to get to the login screen (i.e. locked!).

I've read through that article and the comments, and it seems this is more than slightly difficult to do but there is a piece of freeware called SizzlingKeys (http://www.yellowmug.com/sk4it/) thats meant for controlling iTunes. It apparently adds a couple of keyboard shortcuts, one of which is to get to the user switching menu. Hopefully that'll do the job. I'll reply back tonight once I get it running.

Why Apple couldn't have just given us a shortcut to get there I do not know...
 
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todd51

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Well how about just setting your screensaver to like 15 or 20 minutes, that way if your reading a WebPage, then more than likely you'll move your mouse or press your keyboard once within that time since you'll have to scroll down for reading. That's what I would do.
 

Jem


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Call me old fashioned, but I like having the choice of when I want to lock it and when I don't. I've just installed that Sizzling Keys app (freeware!) and it does exactly what I want, I now have Alt-Cmd-L assigned to the login window.... nice :)
 
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Jem said:
Mmmm I considered that one but it would annoy me if I'm reading a web page (for instance) and it goes into screen saver and I'd have to log on again.

There MUST be a way of doing this on a keypress?????

So set the screen saver for 3 hours.
 
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Jem said:
Call me old fashioned, but I like having the choice of when I want to lock it and when I don't. I've just installed that Sizzling Keys app (freeware!) and it does exactly what I want, I now have Alt-Cmd-L assigned to the login window.... nice :)

So, when you do this ^ you're at the login window.....and are still logged in, with all open apps still running etc?
 

Jem


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Pulse-8 said:
So, when you do this ^ you're at the login window.....and are still logged in, with all open apps still running etc?

Yep, exactly how I wanted it :)

I dunno, there's times I want to quickly return to the login screen while I'm typing and opening menus and selecting with the mouse is just hassle I don't want. Seems an easy thing to have built in but this solution is perfect.
 

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