July 2, 2009 at 19:25Mac OS X lock screen
One fine day, I began to use mac os x as the main operating system. And since then I sometimes find that some functions that I'm used to are missing in one form or another. Having been working with computers for more than 10 years, I have developed a strong habit of locking the desktop if I leave even for 2 minutes.
First of all, I decided to search in the "Hot Keys", in which you can configure almost everything, but there were no "locks" there. I had to look a bit, and as it turned out - there are several solutions. Conventionally, they can be divided into 2 methods. First, blocking through a password request to disable the screen saver. Second, quick user change.
In order to enable the password request for disabling the screen saver, go to System Preferences-> Security and turn on the “Require password to wake up computer from sleep or screen saver” checkbox.
It would seem that this is not a bad option, just wait until it turns on interesting. The most annoying thing is that in a simple (without third-party application) way, I did not succeed in turning on the screensaver on any key combination. Google, read, remember about Expose. You can activate the screen saver by moving the cursor to one of the corners.
For a very long time this method was the most favorite.
It turned out that not everything is so bad in the Danish kingdom, there is a switching function between users, which blocks the desktop for entering a password. It is also activated quite simply. To do this, go to System Preferences-> Accounts. Click on the lock image in order to log in and enable the “Enable fast user switching” checkbox.
Now we have a beautiful icon for switching users.
We click on it and select the “Login Window ...” item and observe a cool effect when it is blocked.
Returning to the keys, the progress is zero, since it is normal, in one combination, switching users also does not work. Perversions with a chain of combinations I will not even describe.
After a while, I discovered the free quicksilver utility and its trigger functionality, which can be hung on hot keys. And then I got the idea to write a small script to include a splash screen by the combination of cmd + shift + L. For this we need:
You can download it from quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac , the installation is trivial.
For writing we will use the standard application “Script Editor.app”. We start and write the following text: It should look something like this:
Save it wherever you like (I saved it in the home directory), remember the path.
To do this, open quicksilver, the triggers tab.
triggers in QS
Click on the plus sign below and select the Hotkey item. In the cell we add the script written in the previous step, as in the picture.
Later, the idea came to my mind, why not pause iTunes when the screen locks? To do this, we just need to add such lines to the end of the script that launches the splash screen: With the new functionality, life becomes a little easier.
First of all, I decided to search in the "Hot Keys", in which you can configure almost everything, but there were no "locks" there. I had to look a bit, and as it turned out - there are several solutions. Conventionally, they can be divided into 2 methods. First, blocking through a password request to disable the screen saver. Second, quick user change.
Screen Saver Lock
In order to enable the password request for disabling the screen saver, go to System Preferences-> Security and turn on the “Require password to wake up computer from sleep or screen saver” checkbox.
It would seem that this is not a bad option, just wait until it turns on interesting. The most annoying thing is that in a simple (without third-party application) way, I did not succeed in turning on the screensaver on any key combination. Google, read, remember about Expose. You can activate the screen saver by moving the cursor to one of the corners.
For a very long time this method was the most favorite.
Quick user change
It turned out that not everything is so bad in the Danish kingdom, there is a switching function between users, which blocks the desktop for entering a password. It is also activated quite simply. To do this, go to System Preferences-> Accounts. Click on the lock image in order to log in and enable the “Enable fast user switching” checkbox.
Now we have a beautiful icon for switching users.
We click on it and select the “Login Window ...” item and observe a cool effect when it is blocked.
Returning to the keys, the progress is zero, since it is normal, in one combination, switching users also does not work. Perversions with a chain of combinations I will not even describe.
Quicksilver
After a while, I discovered the free quicksilver utility and its trigger functionality, which can be hung on hot keys. And then I got the idea to write a small script to include a splash screen by the combination of cmd + shift + L. For this we need:
1. Put quicksilver
You can download it from quicksilver.en.softonic.com/mac , the installation is trivial.
2. Write a script to launch the screen saver
For writing we will use the standard application “Script Editor.app”. We start and write the following text: It should look something like this:
tell application “ScreenSaverEngine”
activate
end tell3. Save the screen saver activation script
Save it wherever you like (I saved it in the home directory), remember the path.
4. Add a trigger to the desired key combination
To do this, open quicksilver, the triggers tab.
triggers in QS
Click on the plus sign below and select the Hotkey item. In the cell we add the script written in the previous step, as in the picture.
Bonus Functionality
Later, the idea came to my mind, why not pause iTunes when the screen locks? To do this, we just need to add such lines to the end of the script that launches the splash screen: With the new functionality, life becomes a little easier.
tell application “iTunes”
pause
end tell