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In Windows you can press the Windows button and L to lock the screen. You can do this on a Mac, but only if you've set your computer to lock every time your screen or computer goes to sleep. Do you want to use the keyboard shortcut occasionally but don't want to type a password every time you wake up your machine? Too bad, Macs do not work that way.
Unless, that is, you install QuickLock. This simple app lets you lock your Mac's screen using a keyboard shortcut or a single click. You can even customize how your lockscreen looks, if you want.
Enter Lockdown Mode!
Like I said, the concept is simple. The lockscreen shows up when you use a keyboard shortcut. There's no password box, but you still need to type your password. When you do, everything will unlock.
Clicking the menubar locks the screen, but if you hold the control key while clicking it, you can access options. You can even set the program to lock the screen at a set time in the future, potentially making this useful for the Pomodoro technique:
You can customize basically everything about the lockscreen, if that's important to you. Custom background, custom lock icon; you can make things look almost however you like.
Whether this is worth doing is completely up to you, but it's nice to have the option. I added a picture of a shipwreck from northern Michigan:
Other settings include:
- Dimming the display.
- Opening the software when you start your computer.
- Lock the screen at a set time, every day.
- Your keyboard shortcut (set as whatever you like).
- Your password (not necessarily the same as your system password).
So there are many ways in which you can tweak QuickLock to work exactly as you like.
Download QuickLock
Are you ready to give this a shot? Download QuickLockApp now. It's not in the Mac App Store, so get ready to do the drag-the-icon-to-the-Applications-folder dance.
Locking Without The App
Do you want to lock your Mac, but don't want to install a dedicated program for the task? There's a keyboard shortcut for turning the Mac display off – Control, Shift and Eject. For this to lock the screen, however, you'll need to set your computer to lock whenever the display turns off. Open up the Software Preferences, then click "Security". Check "Require Password" and you're set.
If you prefer locking from the menu bar that's also possible. Open KeyChain access (in Utilities), open the program's preferences and check the "add keychain status to menu bar" box. You'll now have a quick way to lock your screen from the menu bar:
QuickLock gives you a quick way to do both of these things, and allows you to customize your keyboard shortcut and the look of the lock screen. Even better, you can use it without the need to unlock your computer every time you start it. Which method you use is entirely up to you, of course.
Do you lock your Mac's screen when you leave the room? Why? Let us know in the comments below, along with your preferred method of locking.
