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FAQ

ITS sponsored a security awareness campaign

Manually locking your computer

There are three popular methods of manually locking your computer; choose whichever method is easiest for you or best serves your needs.

Method 1

You can use a key combination of the Windows logo key (If your system has one, you are looking for the flying Windows logo on it.) and it is typically located to the left of the spacebar the. To immediately lock your computer you need to hold down the Windows key and the "l" key (the letter l) simultaneously.

Method 2

Press Ctrl-Alt-Del simultaneously. In Windows 2000 or XP, click Lock Computer. In Windows NT, click Lock Workstation.

Method 3

You can create a desktop shortcut that will lock your computer when you double-click it:

1. Right-click the desktop and select New, then Shortcut. This will open the Create Shortcut Wizard
   
    

2. For the location of the item, type the following:

     %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

3. Click Next
   
    

4. Type an appropriate name for this shortcut and click Finish

You will now have a shortcut on your desktop that will lock your computer when you double-click it

Locking your computer through the screen saver

To set up your screen saver to automatically lock your computer, follow these directions:

1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties
   
    

2. In the Display Properties window, select the Screen Saver tab
   
    

3. In the drop-down window, select a screen saver file
   
    

4. In the "Wait:" field, set the amount of time of "no activity" you want to have before the screen saver appears
   
    

5. Check the Password protected (Windows 2000) or On resume (Windows XP), password protect box, and then click OK. After checking this box, when the screen saver appears your workstation will be locked

However you choose to lock your computer, to unlock it, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. The Unlock Workstation or Unlock Computer window will appear. Enter the password for the username under which you're logged in.

Administrators for either the local computer or the domain can unlock a locked computer by entering their username and password at the login prompt. This will log the current user out, but will not log the administrator in. At this point, any user with login rights can log into the computer normally.

Note: If you are the local computer administrator, you need to log into the local computer rather than the domain. Also, by using the administrator login to unlock the workstation, you will erase all unsaved work.

If your domain username is in the Administrators group, then you can enter your domain name and domain password and select the proper domain in the drop-down menu. You are not required to log into the local computer. This will also unlock the workstation and erase all unsaved work.

For assistance, contact Security Operations and Services.
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Last revised: 05/13/2005