1. Mac Lock Screen Time

• Login screen disregards Automatic Login settings and insists on asking for a user password. —— I found this solution at TechRaptor (thanks!), although at first it seems a bit unrelated (many screen captures in article): The Iron Mac: How to Get Rid of Annoying Local Items Keychain Box.
• Download OSX Yosemite Login Screen for Windows XP and 7. UPDATE: OSX Yosemite Login Screen for Windows 7 is now available for download. You might be aware of the upcoming OS X Yosemite (version 10.10) Mac operating system from Apple which is going to release for public at the end of this year.
• A final approach to locking your Mac is to use the log-in window and Apple's Fast User Switching feature (enabled by default in more recent versions of OS X, but which can be enabled in the 'Login.

Listener Dominic writes in with a tip on how to quickly lock your screen in OS X (applies to both Snow Leopard and Lion).

In today’s Quick Tip, I’ll show you how the “old method” of enabling an instantaneous lock screen worked and how macOS 10.13 High Sierra makes it even easier to lock your Mac’s screen. The Old Method With macOS 10.12 Sierra and earlier versions of the Mac operating system, enabling the lock screen ability required setup by the user. Back in June 2012, I blogged about ‘How to Instantly Lock your Mac OS X Screen in Lion‘ and then in January 2014, I updated that blog for OS X Mavericks. This time round I thought I’d revisit this feature and report back on my findings trying to lock the screen of a Mac running the recently released OS X El Capitan 10.11, since during OS X training courses I find that this is a very.

As discussed on Mac Geek Gab 342, there are two easy methods to quickly lock your screen. First, you can use a menu bar item.

Launch Keychain Access and go to Preferences. In the General tab, check the box for “Show keychain status in menu bar.” This will add a padlock icon to your system’s menu bar.

Select this icon and you’ll see several options, the first of which is “Lock Screen.”

The second option is even faster: a keyboard shortcut.

Pressing Control-Shift-Eject on a Mac keyboard will immediately lock your display. If you set your security settings to require a password immediately after sleep, no one will be able to access your Mac without first entering a password.

To change your security settings, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General. Check the box next to “Require password…” and choose the time delay that suits your needs. If you’ll be using your Mac in public places such as coffee shops or libraries, choosing “immediately” will provide the best protection.

[Updated to show that Control-Shift-Eject locks the display instead of sleeping the system.]

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The Rocket Yard is the place to be for tips and hints about security, but one simple security tip that many people forget about is just making sure that your Mac screen is locked if you’re away from the computer for even just a few minutes. By locking the screen, I mean that anyone walking up to the Mac is required to enter the correct password to use it. Doing this can keep someone from just walking up to your Mac and looking at (or copying) your private files while you’ve walked away for a restroom break or to grab another cup of coffee.

In today’s Quick Tip, I’ll show you how the “old method” of enabling an instantaneous lock screen worked and how macOS 10.13 High Sierra makes it even easier to lock your Mac’s screen.

Mac Lock Screen Time

The Old Method
With macOS 10.12 Sierra and earlier versions of the Mac operating system, enabling the lock screen ability required setup by the user. Here’s how it was done:

1) Launch System Preferences from the Dock or by selecting System Preferences from the Apple (  ) menu

2) Click on “Security and Privacy” and then select the General tab

3) Click the checkbox next to “Require password after sleep or screen saver begins”, and make sure that “immediately” or “5 seconds” is selected from the drop-down menu as the time interval before the password is required (see screenshot below):

4) Exit System Preferences

Now when you walk away from the Mac, you can use one of a few methods to lock the screen when you need to take a quick break.

• Press Control – Shift – Eject on Macs that have an Eject key or an external keyboard
• Press Control – Shift – Power on Macs that don’t have an Eject key, like MacBooks
• Set up a “Hot Corner” on your screen for putting the display to sleep, which will also lock your screen. To do this:

1) Launch System Preferences, then select “Desktop and Screen Saver”

2) Click the Screen Saver tab

3) Click on the Hot Corners button (see screenshot below)

4) Select one of the four corners of your screen to act as a hot corner for putting your display to sleep. In the example screenshot below, I selected the lower right corner and chose “Put Display to Sleep” as the action when the cursor enters that corner:

5) Click OK, then exit System Preferences

Now when you place the cursor in the active screen corner, the display goes to sleep. Any movement of the mouse or trackpad, or a press on the keyboard makes a login screen appear and requires the correct password to be entered before the Mac can be used.

The New Method in macOS High Sierra
Apple added an official Lock Screen feature to macOS High Sierra, making the entire process of locking your screen a lot easier. It’s available either from the Apple (  ) menu or with a simple keyboard shortcut. From the Apple menu:

1) Select the Apple menu while in any application

2) Select “Lock Screen” to instantly lock the Mac screen (see screenshot below). A login screen is immediately displayed; Lock Screen doesn’t start your screen saver, nor does it log out of the active account or quit any applications.

Alternatively, the Command – Control – Q keyboard shortcut also activates Lock Screen.

Add a Lock Screen Message

If you’re around a lot of people with similar MacBooks, it can sometimes be difficult to know which computer belongs to what person. One quick way to immediately identify a Mac from the lock screen is to add a Lock Screen Message. Here’s how to do it:

1) Launch System Preferences, and select the Security & Privacy pane by clicking on it

2) Select the “General” tab, then click the lock button in the lower left corner of the window and enter your admin password when asked

3) Now that you have administrative rights, you can check the box next to “Show a message when the screen is locked”. Click the “Set Lock Message” button, then enter a message (see screenshot below):

4) Click the lock button again to save the change and then close out of System Preferences

Now when your Mac screen is locked, it not only displays the login screen but also your message (see screenshot below):

The Lock Screen message can help return a lost MacBook to you and also sort out the owner of one of a number of identical Mac laptops!

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