Have Another Apple

I’m sure that I am not alone when I say that I was a huge fan of Ctrl-Alt-Del, then Lock Computer on Windows. It is a simple way to secure your computer, without setting the computer to sleep, and giving you the piece of mind to know your computer isn’t about to be meddled with. So, when I switched to Mac, I looked hard for the same feature, and found that Leopard (Tiger has the some of the same features) has multiple ways to do this. We’ll start from least convenient and make our way down. To ensure these work, you will need a password for your account.

Sleep
On a Macbook, this can be achieved by pressing the power button and pressing sleep, or closing the lid. On a desktop Mac, the option is to press the Apple logo and selecting sleep (this works on a Macbook also). Why is this the least convenient? As when your computer goes to sleep, your applications stop running and it takes time for your computer to wake from sleep, which isn’t convenient if you are after something fast.

More after the jump.

Screensaver
Screensaver is great. It doesn’t stop your applications, and it can require a password when the computer is next used. However, you may find yourself waiting for this to become active. How can this be solved? Expose. This, a Leopard-only feature, allows you to set one of your corners to activate the screensaver. I use my bottom right corner to activate screensaver. Here are the settings below:

Switch User/Login Window
My personal favourite. This feature works very similarly to the Windows feature I mentioned earlier. This brings you back to the login screen whilst keeping your applications running. Depending on your “Energy Saver” settings, then it will also set the display, but not the computer to sleep. It also features a snazzy 3D cube effect (similar to Parallels) when you lock and unlock the computer. Under “Accounts” in System Preferences, use the following settings:

Now, you can use the menu button to click “Login Window”. You’re set!