lock workstation?

[dragon2611]

is there a keyboard shortcut in osx that locks the system?

like in windows xp when you do winkey + L it either takes you to the welcome screen or displays workstation locked message and then you have to put your password in to unlock the system.

Stops people playing with it or reading my screen when i go off for a moment.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

there are a few options open:
1. You can set the account up so that it asks for a password to get out of screensaver or sleep
2. with sizzlingkeys4iTunes, you can set a key combination (default is F1 i think) to go back to the login screen.

 

[panoz7]

As far as I know there isn't a quick keyboard shortcut. There are two alternative ways to lock the computer that I've discovered.

You can set the screen saver to ask for a password when resuming OS X, which effectively locks your computer. You can set a hot-corner to activate the screen saver which makes the whole process pretty simple.

You can also open the keychain access utility and enable the "show status on menubar" thing under preferences. This will give you a little lock on the menubar which when you click it gives you the option to lock the screen.

I'm pretty sure those are the only two ways. Maybe someone knows a secret keyboard shortcut I just haven't learned yet.

EDIT: oops... looks like scarlet fever beat me to it. Sizzllingkeys sounds cool.

 

[Kelmon]

Not sure if this helps or not but I use Quicksilver's Fast Logout script to do the job for me. Pressing the hot-key combo to invoke Quicksilver (Shift+Alt+Space), typing "fl" and pressing Enter to run the script results in the OS X Logon screen being displayed - all your applications are still running and you can just log back on to keep on working. This is a pretty secure (I believe) way to lock your computer.

With the "fl" to bring up the Fast Logout option, you might need to train Quicksilver the first time you use it by using the up/down cursor keys to find the script in Quicksilver's results before pressing Enter. Once trained the option should always appear as first action when you use these keystrokes.

If you don't wish to use Quicksilver, you can achieve the same effect with the mouse by enabling "Fast User Switching" in System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options. When this is enabled you should be able to select the displayed icon or user name in the system menu bar and select "Login Window".

Hope this helps.

 

[dragon2611]

Not sure if this helps or not but I use Quicksilver's Fast Logout script to do the job for me. Pressing the hot-key combo to invoke Quicksilver (Shift+Alt+Space), typing "fl" and pressing Enter to run the script results in the OS X Logon screen being displayed - all your applications are still running and you can just log back on to keep on working. This is a pretty secure (I believe) way to lock your computer.

With the "fl" to bring up the Fast Logout option, you might need to train Quicksilver the first time you use it by using the up/down cursor keys to find the script in Quicksilver's results before pressing Enter. Once trained the option should always appear as first action when you use these keystrokes.

If you don't wish to use Quicksilver, you can achieve the same effect with the mouse by enabling "Fast User Switching" in System Preferences > Accounts > Login Options. When this is enabled you should be able to select the displayed icon or user name in the system menu bar and select "Login Window".

Hope this helps.

alt + space (i changed it ) but i cant find the one your talking about *ive got the users plugin loaded also* fi gives me finder but i cant the the lock/login window options