Comments on: Locking & Password Protecting Your Mac

By: Sean

Sean — Tue, 08 May 2007 22:23:53 +0000

As mentioned above, simply find the KeyChain Access application under preferences, then check the box to add it to the menubar. Once you’ve done this, you’ll notice a black pad lock in the top right hand corner of your screen. Once you click on the small padlock, you’ll be able to select “lock screen” from the drop down menu…

From what I can gather, the DeskShade application costs $12. You won’t need it for this functionality alone.

By: Honza

Honza — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 09:46:56 +0000

If you are up from your desk a lot (and I am) I think a keyboard shortcut is the best option. The deskshade CMD-L is the same as the windows-L on PC’s, so if you have to use both platforms…

By: vanni

vanni — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:51:42 +0000

“Click it and select “Lock Screen” will lock down the session for you.:

cool. very cool. so simple.

By: Karsten

Karsten — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 22:31:15 +0000

I use DeskShade for this (http://macrabbit.com/deskshade). I believe it’s a lot handier. Just hitting cmd + L locks my Mac, without further hassle. You have to check that app out, it’s very handy. It features some cool desktop background transitions, too…

By: Daniel Andersson

Daniel Andersson — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 21:32:32 +0000

Also, /Applications/Utilities/Kechain Access.app, go to the Preferences, enable the “Show Status in Menu Bar”. This provides you with a handy little menubar item that looks like a padlock.

Click it and select “Lock Screen” will lock down the session for you.

By: Mark Wubben

Mark Wubben — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:20:30 +0000

If you run the following in Terminal, the Mac will go back to the user login but won’t log you out:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

Hook it up through Quicksilver and you’ll have a handy shortcut. Instead of FileVault you could use an encrypted disk image symlinked from folders in your home dir. If FileVault performance is not be as good as you’d like, this provides a better solution.