Windows users can easily lock their computer when they step away by hitting Win+L; on the Mac, there’s no default keyboard-friendly system lock shortcut. Quick tip site One Thing Well offers a simple, no add-on workaround.
All you need to know is the Shift+Ctrl+Eject shortcut. By default, this shortcut simply sleeps your display; wiggle your mouse to kill wake them up. That’s nice to know, but it’s not much of a lock. The solution:
Under System Preferences → Security → General, check ‘Require password after sleep or screensaver begins’.
This has the advantage of working perfectly with the keyboard combo to switch off your display.
Lock Your Mac [One Thing Well]
Stan V
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 7:45 AMAn even easier way to lock your mac is to set a hotspot so it sleeps and then ask for a password when it wakes up. For example, i just fling my mouse cursor to the bottom left corner of my screen and it sleeps/locks! too easy, no fiddling with a key combo!
Bernie
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 12:42 PMI don’t know if this is what people want, as in the fact that it is not straight forward but, try this script:
do shell script “‘/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession’ -suspend > /dev/null”
It’s a one line command that I have in an applescript which is activated by a hotkey. It immediately locks the screen.
Jack Cola
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 8:42 PMWhat is the eject key? My Keyboard doesnt have one
Angus Kidman
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 9:52 PMI’m not sure if they feature on all Mac keyboards (there on Macbooks though)