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Possible Duplicates:
Equivalent of Win-L on Mac
Is there a keystroke that can lock the Mac OS X screensaver?

I am using a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.5. I am new to this development environment, and previously worked on Windows.

I am wondering how to lock screen for Mac computer, like Windows Key + L to lock screen for Windows PC?

Thanks in advance.

Community
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George2
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    you're asking some good questions, but do me a favor. don't say "hello", and don't sign your name. (saying "thanks" is ok.) also, use the tag "[osx]" when asking about the operating system, and the tag "[mac]" when asking about the hardware. thanks! – quack quixote May 14 '10 at 07:18
  • Thanks! I am newbie and I may make mistakes. I appreciate your help and I want to improve step by step. Any further issues, please feel free to let me know. :-) – George2 May 14 '10 at 07:19

4 Answers4

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as it happens, lifehacker brought a story today about locking the mac:

All you need to know is the Shift+Ctrl+Eject shortcut. By default,
this shortcut simply sleeps your display; wiggle your mouse to wake
it up. That's nice to know, but it's not much of a lock. The solution:

Under System Preferences → Security → General, check ‘Require password 
after sleep or screensaver begins'. This has the advantage of working 
perfectly with the keyboard combo to switch off your display.

or, just to put it into other words: configure the screensaver to ask for the password and then activate the screensaver (either via a key shortcut or by putting the mouse in an active corner and configure osx to activate the screensave while the mouse is in that corner).

akira
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    Thanks, but I did not find a way to lock immediately. I want to lock screen immediately but keep other programs running (e.g. downloading jobs on my Mac). Any recommended solutions? – George2 May 14 '10 at 07:31
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    this only activates your screensaver. the point is that you have to enter the password to deactivate the screensaver, the programs continue to run with or without the screensaver. – akira May 14 '10 at 07:33
  • I have found "System Preferences → Security → General, check ‘Require password after sleep or screensaver begins" -- does not trigger screen saver immediately. Is that correct? What I want to do is to lock screen immediately after I leave my seat. – George2 May 14 '10 at 08:16
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    the keyboard kombination of shift+ctrl+eject starts the screensaver instantly. – akira May 14 '10 at 08:22
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    What is the eject key you mean? I did not find a key called "Eject" on my MacBook Pro. – George2 May 14 '10 at 08:25
  • I have found eject key, but find it only power-off screen, not lock screen. – George2 May 14 '10 at 08:31
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    On the Mac Air (maybe MacBook Pro too), I type CONTROL+OPTION+POWER to turn off the screen. (Tested in Mavericks.) However, note on my Mac Air that I have my COMMAND and CONTROL buttons swapped. So, for you, it might be COMMAND+OPTION+POWER. I then wiggle the mouse and I see a login screen. – Volomike Mar 12 '14 at 13:49
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You can use Keychain Access (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to quickly activate your screen saver from the menubar and require a password to turn it off, even if the Security pane option isn't enabled. Open Keychain Access and then go to Keychain Access: Preferences. Click on the General tab and select the Show Status in Menu Bar option. A small lock icon will appear in your menu bar. Close the Preferences window and quit Keychain Access. Now click the lock icon in your menubar and choose Lock Screen to start your screen saver. It can only be unlocked with your account password.

helgeg
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If you have a menu in your top-right for user switching, go to it and choose 'Login Window'. I use Quicksilver, and I have an AppleScript called 'Lock' that I can run - it simply fires off the following:

do shell script "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend"

When I need to go away from my machine, I simply hit Opt+Space, type 'Lock' (often 'lo' will do), hit Enter.

Unlike screensaver based solutions, this means that other users can log in.

Tom Morris
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0

The quickest way to lock your desktop is to hit Shift-Command-Option + Q to do a fast user logout.

Jawa
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