Section 116. Lock the Screen

116. Lock the Screen

SEE ALSO

115 Require a Password When Reactivating the Computer

114 Automatically Log Out

135 Extract a Password from the Keychain

An alternative way to lock your screen and to gain access to a number of other security features as well (using Keychain ) is to enable the Keychain Status System Menu and use it to launch a locked screensaver. This System Menu has many other and more subtle uses, as does the Keychain Access utility itself (see 135 Extract a Password from the Keychain for more information). This task, however, looks only at how to lock the screen using this mechanism.

1.	Launch Keychain Access Navigate to the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder and launch the Keychain Access utility.
2.	Enable the Keychain Status System Menu Open the Keychain Access Preferences (under the Keychain Access menu). Under the General tab, select the Show Status in Menu Bar check box. The Keychain Status System Menu appears among your other system menus at the top-right corner of the screen. This menu gives you quick access to the Keychain Access utility, as well as one-click shortcuts to locking your current login keychain and the overall system keychain. 116. Lock the Screen
3.	Lock the Screen From the Keychain Status System Menu, select Lock Screen . The screensaver immediately starts, using the screensaver you most recently selected. When you want to wake the computer by moving the mouse or pressing a keyboard key, you are prompted for a username and password before the screensaver will disengage.