Imagine it’s an ordinary day at your office and you decide to get up and leave your desk to grab a drink. You walk out the door, get what you need and are back 5 minutes later. You plop down into your seat, and immediately notice something is different. There are confidential documents open on your computer that weren’t when you left. Even worse, you notice items on your desk are out of place…someone has been on your Mac. A situation like this may sound unlikely, but it can happen. Here’s how you can prevent it by locking your Mac easily every time you leave your desk.
The problem with normal password lock
As you know, the normal way to lock your Mac is by either shutting it down or logging off. So if you’re simply stepping out of your office to use the Toilet, you probably don’t want to waste time doing either of these to keep your desktop secure from a snooping passerby. So what’s to do? Set up a password lock. This allows you to lock your Mac by simply putting it to sleep.
How to set up a password lock
One of the best parts about setting up a password lock on your Mac is that it’s incredibly easy. To do so, click on the following:
- System Preferences
- Security & Privacy (located under the “Personal” group of icons)
- General tab
- Check the box that reads, “require password after sleep or screen saver begins”
Once you’ve done this, choose “immediately” from the box that lights up. Now, your Mac will lock every time it goes to sleep, and to use it again your password will need to be entered.
So, that leaves one more question. How can you easily put your Mac to sleep?
How to make your Mac go to sleep on command
There are several easy ways to do this. The first and probably the one you’re most familiar with is to simply click on the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen, and then click Sleep.
If you prefer keyboard shortcuts, you can use one of the following:
- Control + Shift + Eject – this makes only the screen go to sleep
- Command + Option + Eject – this makes the computer go to sleep
Probably the easiest way of all is to activate Hot Corners, which allows you to put your monitor to sleep by simply moving your cursor to a specific corner of the screen. To activate this, click on the following:
- System Preferences
- Desktop & Screensaver
- Screensaver
- Hot Corners (in the bottom right hand corner)
Then choose the corner you would like to use to put your monitor to sleep, and select “Put Display to Sleep”. Every time you navigate your cursor to that corner of the screen, your monitor will go to sleep and your Mac will be locked.
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