Locking Keyboard & Mouse Access

Hi, folks,

I'd like an easy way to lock access to the keyboard and mouse. There
are little people who love to sit at the machine and start all sorts of
processes, and I'd expect that there's something a bit more elegant
than unplugging the keyboard as a solution. I have only today started
Googling this, but I'm surprised at the dearth of information out
there. Maybe I'm using the wrong keywords.

Is this a built-in functionality?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

Activate a screensaver and make it require a password to awake?


Jochem

 

Or just lock the screen. Apple makes it a bit less than obvious,
but there's a Lock Screen command. The easiest way to get it
into an accessible place is - here's the less-than-obvious
part - is to start up Applications->Utilities->Keychain Access.
Then, go to Keychain Access->Preferences and in the Preference
window, select "Show Status in Menubar".

That activates a menu on the right side of your menubar which
looks like a padlock. The first thing in that menu is "Lock Screen".

 

"Activate a screensaver and make it require a password to awake?"

I'd thought of that, and had considered mentioning it in the post, but
I don't consider that an elegant solution. I appreciate the response,
though, because that may have been my only way out.

"Or just lock the screen."

[snip]

That's just about perfect, from what I can tell. Of course I'm at work
and can't test it, but I'd much prefer something intrinsic to the OS
than a 3rd-party add-on.

Thank you both.

Daniel

 

Another thing you can do is go to System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login
Options and enable fast user switching. This will put a menu into the
menu bar. Choose "login window" from the menu bar.

I have actually created a separate Simple Finder account for my kids.
When I need to step away from the computer and the kids are around, I
fast-user-switch into it. There are a few toddler games they can play
from that account, but mostly they are entertained by the slideshow of
family photos that changes on the Desktop every five seconds (I thought
the 5-second desktop picture change function was useless until I used it
for this purpose!)

K.