Locking osx

Gimpy · Jul 1, 2006

Is there a way to "lock" osx in the same way as windows. I live in a shared house and im fed up of coming back to my mac to find my desktop has been changed to something obscene, haha.

Basically I want it so i can press a series of keys and it locks it and needs my pass. The same way you can set windows xp up so that you press ctrl-alt-del and it locks it. Anyway I can do this?

baggss · Jul 1, 2006

SYSTEM PREFS > ACCOUNTS > LOGIN OPTIONS > ENABLE FAST USER SWITCHING. You will now have a little login icon in the top right corner of the screen (you can set it as your profile name as well). When you want to lock your Mac, just click on that and select LOGIN WINDOW. This will return the screen to the login Window without logging you out.

Alternately you can set the system to lock when the screen-saver comes on and it will require your password to unlock it.

coach_z · Jul 2, 2006

or you can set up a hot corner to get your screen saveer to come on, and then under your screen saver pref's you set it to password protect in order to come back
-chris

Say_Cheese · Jul 2, 2006

That last one is exactly what I do with my Mac. I have the bottom right hand corner set as the hot corner for launching the screen saver. I then have my password required by OS X to get back in.

CerealKiller · Feb 21, 2007

Sorry to open up this long closed thread, but I have a question about locking the screen. I searched and searched for a setting that would put the computer to sleep after X minutes but was unable to find it. Also I looked for settings on whether or not to sleep the computer when the lid closes again with no avail. My question deals with running applications while locking the screen. I want to be able to lock the screen, close the screen and walk away, while still allowing my downloads (transmit, bitComet, etc.) to keep functioning. Please help...

Say_Cheese · Feb 22, 2007

If you are simply putting your screensaver on then you should still be able to continue downloading while the screensaver is active.

However when you put the Mac to sleep you are actually stopping the HD from spinning so you won't be able to download anything.

I would suggest that you put the screensaver on when you go away and then you can continue to download.

christm · Feb 22, 2007

just make sure it doesnt go onto sleep when your downloading because it will pause the download.

CerealKiller · Feb 22, 2007

Say_Cheese said:
If you are simply putting your screensaver on then you should still be able to continue downloading while the screensaver is active.

However when you put the Mac to sleep you are actually stopping the HD from spinning so you won't be able to download anything.

I would suggest that you put the screensaver on when you go away and then you can continue to download.

If I put the screen saver on first, and then close the lid of my macbook pro, will the computer sleep? Or wil it stay in screen saver mode? Thanks.

Stretch · Feb 22, 2007

If you close the lid, unless you have one of the hacks, it will go to sleep.

Bill_Gates · Feb 22, 2007

You can use a program like Sleepless
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17893

which will allow the machine to stay awake when the lid is closed

I have never tried this program... I know there used to be concern that this could damage a machine since the older macs (ibooks especially if i remember correctly) would literally cook themselves in some instances due to how they manage the heat from the machine...

Though... I believe that the new mbp's will allow you to remain awake when the lid is closed if an external monitor is connected to the machine... so it may be a safer thing to do nowadays...

Regardless... if you use the hack you may run into troubles...