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Does anyone know of a way that I can lock my computer without a screensaver being shown?

I run some graphs that I like to check every now and then from a distance. But I don't want other people to have access to the computer.

I would love if there was a way to basically disable the keyboard and mouse - or activate the locked screen once any mouse or keyboard activity is detected and require a login.

Does anyone know how I could do this?

Thanks!

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Do you want to see the graphs once the lock is on? Windows Key + L will lock your PC and will require the login credentials but it will display whatever is the default Windows setting for that instance. – Darius Jul 29 '12 at 19:51
1  
Yes I want to see the graphs while the lock is on. They update every few seconds - it's similar to watching stocks. – Alex Waters Jul 29 '12 at 20:23
I suppose I could write a script to trigger windows key + L whenever mouse or keyboard action is detected. Would VBscript be best for this? My windows scripting days are long forgotten. – Alex Waters Jul 30 '12 at 5:31
I think PowerShell will work better. I will try looking into that. – Darius Jul 30 '12 at 6:08
1  
You might want to check this one out. – Darius Jul 30 '12 at 16:44

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote accepted

I believe that program called Clear Lock will do the trick if you're using one monitor.

The Windows+L shortcut is a handy for quickly password-protecting your machine, but if you want to lock it while keeping an eye on your desktop, ClearLock will lock your desktop with a transparent layer so you can see what’s going on.

And it can be downloaded from here

If you don't want to run an exe file then you should check some code samples at Lock Screen Apps (by Microsoft). One caveat though, it's meant for Windows 8.

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Sorry, I was hoping to not have to run an .exe... I should have specified that earlier – Alex Waters Jul 30 '12 at 22:31

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