- Lock Screen Shortcut For Mac
- Shortcut For Mac Lock Screen Shortcut
- Shortcut For Mac Lock Screen For Windows 10
- Macbook Lock Screen
Mar 30, 2017 Lock Your Mac With a Keyboard Shortcut. If you don’t want to wait for your Mac to go to sleep, you can quickly lock your Mac with a simple keyboard shortcut. If you’re using a newer Mac where the Power button is a key, just press Control+Shift+Power. If you’re using an older Mac with an optical drive, press Control+Shift+Eject instead. In this video, I will run over how to set up a keyboard shortcut on your Mac that instantly locks your screen, similar to the way 'WIN + L' works on a Window. Ctrl + Alt + Delete then Enter. This is the common one most people already know about. When I step away from my Mac at work, I want a quick way to lock the screen, and hitting a hot-corner with the mouse is problematic for me. This hint details how to lock the screen from the keyboard by using Automator to build a Service in Snow Leopard. Just close the lid and when you open it next, you'll need to enter your.
10.6: Lock the screen via a keyboard shortcut | 23 comments | Create New Account
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It's not quite as fast as a keyboard shortcut, but if you open 'Keychain Access' and check 'Show Status in Menu Bar' in the preferences, a padlock will appear in the menu bar (it's icon reflects whether there are unlocked keychains or not).
The first item, 'Lock Screen', should initiate the screensaver.
The first item, 'Lock Screen', should initiate the screensaver.
Lock Screen Shortcut For Mac
not really. it just shuts the screen off.
I just hit Command Option eject to put my Mac to sleep.
Thanks for your hint but isn't there a built-in shortcut for locking the screen (Ctrl-Shift-Eject)?
Now, I know that this has been the keyboard shortcut for instant display sleep for some time now, but I seem to remember that prior to OS 10.6, display sleep would never require a password, even if your system was set to require a password when waking from sleep (it have to go fully to sleep for the password requirement to be initiated). As of 10.6, display sleep does indeed seem to require a password, giving us a true screen-locking shortcut. Can anyone else confirm this change in behavior?
I can confirm that this works in Leopard as well - as did it in Tiger. BUt this is not a solution to merely activating a screensaver.
If I need to lock my computer for 5-10 minutes - walk away and come back so no one bothers my system while I step out - I don't want to have to wait 5 minutes just for the system to cycle downa dn crank back up.
The ability to hit a Keyboard Command natively on the Mac was around for years in Classic before the jump to OS X. And for some reason Apple moved it to a Menu only function with the OS change.
And if this Automator workflow works - it'll be great - 'cause I hate having to move the pointer to a 'hot corner' all the damned time. Shouldn't have to.
If I need to lock my computer for 5-10 minutes - walk away and come back so no one bothers my system while I step out - I don't want to have to wait 5 minutes just for the system to cycle downa dn crank back up.
The ability to hit a Keyboard Command natively on the Mac was around for years in Classic before the jump to OS X. And for some reason Apple moved it to a Menu only function with the OS change.
And if this Automator workflow works - it'll be great - 'cause I hate having to move the pointer to a 'hot corner' all the damned time. Shouldn't have to.
This doesn't sound right. I've often used this command when the system was doing something hard drive and CPU intensive in the background, and it did not seem to do anything but turn off the display. Indeed, I usually did it if I was doing extensive video encoding that might take 8 hours or so. Even a minor reduction in processor clock speed would have extended the encoding time by a few hours, and I definitely would have noticed. More to the point, I don't really understand what you mean by the system cycling up and down. On all modern Macs the processor clock speed is adjusted dynamically depending on what the system is doing. Moreover, this adjustment happens instantaneously. It's not like some piece of industrial machinery that has to spin to its full operating speed slowly. I mean, the system can boot cold in about 30 seconds, wakes from full sleep almost instantly, and wakes from display sleep instantly. Nothing takes five minutes.
Nope!
This Sleeps the Hard Drive and causes a several minute spin-down of the system.
Not the same thing.
This Sleeps the Hard Drive and causes a several minute spin-down of the system.
Not the same thing.
If instead of activating the screen saver you want to lock the screen via the login window, the following will also work:
Create a workflow consisting of the 'run shell script' block. Enter '/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/user.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend' (without the quotes) as the script. Now simply save this and assign it a shortcut.
The effect will be more or less the same, but instead of activating your screen saver, it will take you to the main login window screen showing all user accounts (the same as selecting 'Login Window' when using fast user switching). You will of course remain logged in.
Create a workflow consisting of the 'run shell script' block. Enter '/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/user.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend' (without the quotes) as the script. Now simply save this and assign it a shortcut.
The effect will be more or less the same, but instead of activating your screen saver, it will take you to the main login window screen showing all user accounts (the same as selecting 'Login Window' when using fast user switching). You will of course remain logged in.
I wrote up a step by step tutorial with screenshots that explains how to do exactly that. Figured I'd share it for those who need a bit more handholding:
Lock your Mac's screen like in Windows, Snow Leopard editionI almost feel this should be turned into a more general hint. A lot of people probably haven't realized, but with the ability to create new services with Automator and the ability to assign them keyboard shortcuts, we essentially have a built-in shortcut manager along the lines of applications like Spark. In addition to its built-in and third-party templates, automator allows you to execute any applescript or shell script. Between the two, you can create an account-wide keyboard shortcut to do virtually anything.
One thing to note, whenever you invoke one these universal services via the keyboard, you are actually invoking it in the Services menu of the currently active application (you will see the application menu flash). I was concerned that this would not work in all Applications, however Services that require no input seem to work everywhere, even in Applications that do not support Services (e.g., Firefox). Cool!
One thing to note, whenever you invoke one these universal services via the keyboard, you are actually invoking it in the Services menu of the currently active application (you will see the application menu flash). I was concerned that this would not work in all Applications, however Services that require no input seem to work everywhere, even in Applications that do not support Services (e.g., Firefox). Cool!
I use LockTight http://www.gkoya.com/2006/11/23/locktight-for-mac-os-x-intel/
It is a System Preference Pane that you use to configure a hot key and then you can lock your screen via your keyboard shortcut.
It is a System Preference Pane that you use to configure a hot key and then you can lock your screen via your keyboard shortcut.
Good lord! Do yourself a favor and use the 'Keychain in Menu Bar' hint, its trivial to configure and works great, despite requiring a mouse action and not a keyboard shortcut.
Except that the whole point here is that we want to use a keyboard shortcut. The method in the original topic takes about 30 seconds to setup, and requires no third-party applications or technical knowledge.
Shortcut For Mac Lock Screen Shortcut
I can confirm that Ctrl-Shift-Eject does just that.
Maybe you have to activate the option 'Require password immediately after sleep or screensaver begins' in the Security PrefPane.
OK, it puts your monitor to sleep. But who cares if you're away from your computer anyway..
So why bother to create such a complicated solution?
Maybe you have to activate the option 'Require password immediately after sleep or screensaver begins' in the Security PrefPane.
OK, it puts your monitor to sleep. But who cares if you're away from your computer anyway..
So why bother to create such a complicated solution?
To lock my screen, 2 possibilities :
1.
- I use a script made in Automator, you can download it here : http://chriscook.me/featured-articles/new-mac-os-x-application-lock-desktop/
(its icon will appear on your desktop)
- Then, I have associated a keystroke to open this icon via AliasKeys, you can download it here : http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/aliaskeys.html
--> This will immediatly launch the screen login session (it does not stop your app. running)
2.
- System pref., security, password when screen saver, and I activate the screen saver with a hot corner
--> This will immediatly launch the screen saver with my favorite pictures (in case I'd like to avoid the 'rigid' blue screen session)
Hope it'll help, CU+
1.
- I use a script made in Automator, you can download it here : http://chriscook.me/featured-articles/new-mac-os-x-application-lock-desktop/
(its icon will appear on your desktop)
- Then, I have associated a keystroke to open this icon via AliasKeys, you can download it here : http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/aliaskeys.html
--> This will immediatly launch the screen login session (it does not stop your app. running)
2.
- System pref., security, password when screen saver, and I activate the screen saver with a hot corner
--> This will immediatly launch the screen saver with my favorite pictures (in case I'd like to avoid the 'rigid' blue screen session)
Hope it'll help, CU+
the original hint here using automator didn't work for me (OS 10.6.2). i tried several different key combinations and all resulted in that horribly annoying 'boink' sound. did i do something wrong? is that sound just telling me that the keys i chose were already assigned? (i figured it would tell me so more clearly if that were the case).
regardless of all the comments, yes I DO want to start screen saver and not just lock the screen. i already know how to put the thing to sleep. but i have a very nice screensaver and i quite enjoy looking at it as i'm doing other things.
THANKS!!!
regardless of all the comments, yes I DO want to start screen saver and not just lock the screen. i already know how to put the thing to sleep. but i have a very nice screensaver and i quite enjoy looking at it as i'm doing other things.
THANKS!!!
I'm using os 10.6.2 and the automator tip works like a charm. Easy to setup, and I use the shortcut cmd-shift-s without any problems. Thanks a lot for the tip.
I agree with aiaiyaya, 10.6.7 works as original post. The only thing is the unintuitiveness of the double-click, if you watch other lines you will see where to do such a double click. I use Command+alt+L.
To achieve quickly 'lock screen' I activated 'Show fast user switching menu' under System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Options. So now whenever I want to lock the screen I just click the user switch menu on top right of the screen in menu and select Login Window.. No need for defining key ring access or any other.
the hint on the original topic works fine on Lion 10.7.1
i use ctrl-alt-L
i use ctrl-alt-L
How To Create Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcut to Lock Screen
Another easy way to lock your screen is listed at:
http://lukekowald.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-create-mac-os-x-keyboard.html
It also includes how to setup a quick Apple Magic Trackpad gesture to activate this.
The following works on 10.7.4. Basically uses automator to create a utility to launch the screen saver app. I like it because it is much faster than using sleep. I used a couple of different how-to's to craft this including the one by Typhoon14 & acalado above.
1. Enable password for screen saver. To do this: Open System Preferences and click Security & Privacy. Check the 'Require password after sleep or screen saver begins' box.
2. Copy Screen Saver application from '/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app' to your Applications folder.
3. Open Automator (in your Applications folder) and choose Service from the list of templates provided and click the Choose button.
4. In the left hand column under Library, select 'Utilities'.
5. In the second column, drag “Launch Application” to the right hand pane.
6. At the top of the right hand pane where you dragged the Run Shell Script action, click on the menu next to “Service receives” and choose “no input”.
7. From the File Menu select Save and choose a name for the utility.
8. From the System Preferences Pane Select 'Keyboard'
9. Select the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' tab on the top of the window
10. Select 'Services' from left pane
11. Scroll down to 'General' (you might have to expand the General selection) in the right pane and you should see the new utility you created.
12. Select the utility you created and add a keyboard shortcut for it.
1. Enable password for screen saver. To do this: Open System Preferences and click Security & Privacy. Check the 'Require password after sleep or screen saver begins' box.
2. Copy Screen Saver application from '/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app' to your Applications folder.
3. Open Automator (in your Applications folder) and choose Service from the list of templates provided and click the Choose button.
4. In the left hand column under Library, select 'Utilities'.
5. In the second column, drag “Launch Application” to the right hand pane.
6. At the top of the right hand pane where you dragged the Run Shell Script action, click on the menu next to “Service receives” and choose “no input”.
7. From the File Menu select Save and choose a name for the utility.
8. From the System Preferences Pane Select 'Keyboard'
9. Select the 'Keyboard Shortcuts' tab on the top of the window
10. Select 'Services' from left pane
11. Scroll down to 'General' (you might have to expand the General selection) in the right pane and you should see the new utility you created.
12. Select the utility you created and add a keyboard shortcut for it.
There are a number of different ways to lock or sleep your screen in macOS. Before we show them to you, however, it’s important to make the distinction between locking your screen and just putting it to sleep.
If you lock your Mac you’ll put it to sleep and need to type in your login password on your Mac’s lock screen (or unlock it with TouchID on a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, or with an Apple Watch). If you put it to sleep, you won’t necessarily lock it. In order to lock your screen, you need to set up the password in System Preferences. Here’s how to do that.
How to set up a password to lock the screen
- Launch System Preferences either by clicking on its icon in the Dock or by choosing it from the Apple menu.
- Click on the Security & Privacy pane.
- Choose the General tab and check the option that starts ‘Require password…’
- Choose an option from the dropdown menu.
Now, whenever your Mac goes to sleep or a screensaver starts, it will lock and you’ll have to authenticate with your user password, Apple Watch or TouchID to gain access.
Worried about your Mac’s security in public places? Get Beepify, a Setapp app that protects your Mac from theft.
Download Beepify FreeHow to lock your Mac
If you have a MacBook, a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro, the quickest and easiest way to lock your Mac is just to shut the lid. When you do that, the Mac goes to sleep and when you open it again you’ll need to unlock it.
However, there are occasions when you’ll want to prevent anyone from seeing the screen without actually closing it. And, in any case, if you have an iMac, Mac mini or Mac Pro, it’s not an option. Here are some other ways you can lock your Mac’s display.
1. Use Apple menu
Go to the Apple menu and choose Sleep. This will display the login screen for your account and won’t unlock with a password (unless you’re wearing an Apple Watch when you do it and then it will lock and unlock immediately)
Tip: If you want your Mac to remain locked even when you’re close by and you have an Apple Watch, go to System Preferences>Security & Privacy>General and uncheck the Allow your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac option.
2. Use shortcuts
If you’re using a Mac that’s running macOS Catalina, go to the Apple menu and choose Lock Screen or press Command+Control+Q. This will lock your Mac and return you to the Login screen.
For older versions of the operating system, press Control+Shift+Power button (or Control+Shift+Eject if your Mac has an optical drive). It will lock the screen.
You can also use a keyboard shortcut to put your Mac to sleep. Press Command+Option+Power (or Eject). This works in a similar way to the previous one, but rather than just lock your Mac it powers down the hard drive, puts the CPU into low power mode and stops background tasks in order to save energy.
3. Set up a hot corner
Hot corners allow you to drag to the mouse pointer to one of the four corners of the screen to initiate an action – you can use one as a sleep shortcut on your Mac. To set it up:
- Launch System Preferences.
- Choose the Desktop & Screen Saver pane.
- Click the Hot Corners button at the bottom right of the window.
- In the drop down window, choose a corner.
- Click on the menu and choose either Start Screen Saver or Put Display to Sleep.
4. Use fast user switching
Fast user switching allows you to quickly log into another user account on your Mac. But you can also use it to return to the log in window, which locks your Mac. Got to System Preferences>Users & Groups and click the padlock, then type in your password. Click Login Options and check the box next to ‘Show fast user switch menu as.’ You can also choose whether to show the menu as your full name, the account name or an icon.
To lock your Mac, click the fast user switching menu at the right of the menu bar and choose Login Window…
5. Add Keychain Access to the menu bar
This option was removed in macOS Mojave but works on versions before High Sierra:
- Go to Finder.
- Choose Applications > Utilities.
- Launch Keychain Access.
- Click in the Keychain Access menu and select Preferences.
- Check the box next to Show keychain status in menu bar.
- You’ll see a lock in the Finder menu bar. Click it and choose Lock Screen to lock your Mac.
Other ways to protect your privacy
First of all, fet a Finder-like Terminal for Mac that will help you completely control the login settings. It’s called MacPilot. The app covers over 1,200 hidden macOS features. For privacy, you can go into the Login tab and customize access by users, enable the option of automatic screen locking, and edit launch items.
If you’re looking for physical protection of your Mac, Beepify is the app you need. Whenever you have to step away from the computer in a public place, activate Beepify and it will be set to produce a loud sound in case someone tries to close the screen or disconnect charger.
One of the main reasons for locking your Mac when you step away from it is to stop prying eyes accessing your files, browser history, or anything else you don’t want them to see. CleanMyMac X has a tool that gives you even more privacy protection.
CleanMyMac’s Privacy tool allows you to quickly delete your browser history in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. But it also allows you to delete message threads and attachments in Messages, and to remove entries from macOS’ recent files lists.
Also, CleanMyMac’s Shredder is a quick and easy way to securely delete sensitive data. You can download CleanMyMac for free and give it a try.
As you can see, putting your Mac to sleep or locking it is very easy. There are lots of different ways to do it, although some are dependent on the version of macOS you’re using. If you regularly lock your Mac to prevent others accessing it, you should ensure your login password is strong and secure.
Shortcut For Mac Lock Screen For Windows 10
Finally, if privacy is important, CleanMyMac has a couple of tools that can help delete sensitive data.