So, what do people here think about locking their computers? I always lock mine, since I don't want nosy parents or siblings poking around at home, or random people walking around the computer lab messing stuff up at school. My screensaver is also password-protected, but it doesn't really apply since I always lock up before it gets a change to kick in anyway. I force all users of my computer to have a password protected screensaver, except for the accounts that aren't allowed to lock the computer for various reasons (such as the guest account).

I always lock my machine, it's just habit.

same here. When i first got my job where i work now, no one locked there computers, then i set it to lock after 15 min and let me tell you people started to yell. I told them it's to protect you so someone can't get on it and do something and you get blamed. I also said you should lock it right away whenever you get up.

users.. they always think IT is out to get them.

Nah I dont lock it. Only my parents have access and likely they wont mess with it anyways.

enforcing it after 5-10 mins in the workplace is good practice, if anyone moans, tell them to work harder & stay at their desk!

i never lock my home pc, only me and my girlfriend use it, we just share one account

at home its just force of habit, i just lock it when i walk away unless i'm still in view of the monitor.

in school its required though, my account has admin privileges so its very important that i do.

I take it you're a staff member, presumably an IT person? They sure don't give students admin rights at my school! In fact, this year they decided to not even let us lock the computers, by disabling the Lock Workstation button when you press Ctrl+Alt+Del. However, fortunately, making a shortcut to lock the workstation works - under windows 2000, it's , but under XP that doesn't work. Fortunately, a shortcut to tsdiscon will work.

All of the staff at my school district have complete admin privileges, yet only a few lock their computers.

Lock Computer: Work=Yes / Home=No - Unless we have company...

SS Password=No (I don't use screensavers/just let the screen blank)

Force others to Lock comps: I haven't yet...

I voted all the options no, only my siblings and I use my computer and they aren't going to mess up anything. Why even bother, its a pain to type in a password.

I don't lock it, 'cause I have no kids (yet ) and my wife works on the PC only under my close supervision.

The screensaver is force on me, but I normally lock or hibernate my machine when I walk away depending upon how long I am gone and where I'm going next. I have a laptop and 4 offices.

No. I live alone

ya i am the same at school. actuall i think that i am one of the only students who even has the privledges to lock my computer.
sometimes people would just lock there comp, walk away, and not come back, meaning that the computer would have to be restarted for someone else to use it..

even at home i lock my comp, i hate people messing around on my computer then messing something up.

I always lock my computer at home and work.

I lock my laptop whenever I leave it and since its my own laptop, only I use it no one else.

What he said.

Yes.

I lock my computer at home out of habit.

I love it when people don't lock there computers... I stick my USB into there computer and steal all there passwords!

I always lock mine and have screensaver password incase i forget to lock it. Don'y like people being nosey lol

i had admin rights in high school

anyway umm when im using xp i tend to lock, when using 98se i cant be bothered to set a user password so i dont have any point in locking

I don't lock mine. I don't need too.

If my pc was password protected, my wife would find that suspicious and would probably imagine all kinds of stupid things. Since i have nothing to hide, she can poke all she wants. She as her own pc and i know when she pokes around on mine when i'm not there.

^^ lol.

i dont really need to but some times i will when there are nosey visitors around, its better to be safe then sorry, id rather not lose any of my data due to being to trusting in everybody

I do lock it because some people at work have been known to try doing stuff with it. Not at home though. It never goes to sleep.

I have to at work its a security thing.

I always lock my computer at work as I have high level rights and I dont want to leave it so people could come and sit at my PC and elevate their rights or "misuse" the system using my account.

At home I don't bother locking my PC as I very rarely leave it long enough for my wife to find my "educational" films ;-) (which are well hidden) plus my wife has her own PC so has no need to use mine

i don't lock my home computer, but whenever i go to print something at school etc, i always lock before i leave. so many people trying to change passwords...

At home no, my wife would have a hissy fit.

At work yes, I'm a domain admin so every time I leave my desk. I keep a shortcut to "Lock Workstation" in my quicklaunch.

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

At home, no, cause im pretty much the only one who knows to use a computer.

At work? Well, I don't have any computers at work. My office is in the skies.

It would be much quicker to just use startkey + L

(startkey + E is explorer & startkey + R is run)

Panarchy

If you have a Microsoft keyboard, it's quicker yet to use IntelliType to remap a button to lock the computer. For example, my keyboard has a log off button. I don't log off very frequently, so I just set it to lock the workstation.

Win+L is good if you don't have that option. In windows 2000, that doesn't exist, so I recommend making a shortcut as mentioned above and setting it's keyboard shortcut to be Ctrl+Alt+L and then placing it on the desktop. It's only one key more than Win+L, but less work than Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Get a macro keyboard and assign the keybind to a single key

Webcam with software that senses when you walk away from your desk.

Someone actually makes some sort of bluetooth device that as soon as the receiver looses the singal from the transmitter, it locks the computer.

I don't remember the site.

I've actually just got a fob for work that I wear around my neck with my badge, and a USB key on the back that it "talks" to - when I walk more than 10 feet away, it locks automagically (it could unlock it for me too, but I don't want it doing that - I've no idea where it stores the password, and for sure it would be somewhere right in RAM or in a heap somewhere that's easily read).

On the old Win2000 computer, you could probably create the shortcut for lock using some 3rd party software...

yes. i don't want others to look into my d: e: f: g: h: and i: drives

Winkey + L by habit, although at home is redundant as I'm the only user... At work I don't force users to lock their machines, they do what I do, just like monkeys ) so they lock theirs too. As for the screensaver, I don't have one and even if I did I wouldn't use its password protection as I lock the pc long before it would kick in.

at work im more of a vert quick control alt and delete and enter person!

Im like a machine! Do it even if i walk to the printer ha!

i never lock my computer, but i always password protect my screensaver.
my mother refuses to allow me to buy my own laptop, with my money, mind you...
so i have to share a PC with the rest of my family.
and i have a thirteen year old brother who doesn't know how to stay out of other people's business.
so, all i can say is, thank god for password protecting.