How to lock a computer screen without hiding what is on it
Win+L is the usual way to lock a computer screen, and it is the right one when you leave the building. It also hides your desktop behind the Windows sign-in picture and makes you type a password to get back. Often you want something lighter: a cartoon running for a toddler on a touch-screen laptop, a slide left up on a shared desk, a dashboard nobody should poke at while you grab a coffee.
Desktop Screen Locker lays a see-through cover over the screen. Everything underneath keeps running and stays visible, but every click and touch lands on the cover instead. Task switching is shut off as well: Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Esc and the Windows key are swallowed while it is up.
Locking takes one action: the padlock in the app window, a click on its tray icon, or Win+Shift+L pressed in any program. You see the shackle close, and every covered display carries the padlock, so there is no doubt it worked.
Lock the keyboard and mouse together
The mouse and touch are always blocked. The keyboard is optional, because some people want to lock the screen but keep typing into a chat or a note behind it. Turn on Keyboard under What's blocked and keys stop working entirely while locked, except the number keys needed for a PIN. Setting a PIN for the first time switches keyboard blocking on for you.
Unlock with a double-click or a PIN
By default you open it again by double-clicking the cover; pick A single click under Unlock with if you prefer. That is enough to stop a cat, a child or an accidental elbow. For a lock that only you can open, set a PIN:
- Choose a code between four and twelve digits long. Only a salted hash of it is saved on the PC, not the code.
- With a PIN set, the click opens an on-screen keypad; type on it or on the keyboard.
- Miss it five times running and the keypad locks itself for half a minute.
- Once you are back in, the window reports any failed attempts made in your absence.
- Forgot the PIN? Sign in to Windows again and the cover is lifted, so you are never shut out of your own PC.
A screen locker that is honest about Ctrl+Alt+Del
No program can intercept Ctrl+Alt+Del; Windows reserves it on purpose. So instead of pretending, the app watches for it. With Lock Windows if someone reaches for Ctrl + Alt + Del switched on, the default, as soon as that screen appears or Task Manager is brought forward, the app triggers a full Windows lock, so only your account password gets past it. Treat this as a privacy lock for short absences, and use Win+L when the PC must be secure.
Lock the screen automatically, and style the cover
Lock by itself after can be set to 1, 2, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, or 1 hour, without use. Start with Windows, and turn on Lock when Windows starts it for a kiosk or a family PC that should come up locked.
The cover can carry your own Message and the time. Keep watching while locked fades the padlock after a few seconds so a video stays clear; a click brings it back. How dark the cover is goes from a faint tint to fully hidden, and Frosted glass blurs the screen so text cannot be read. Cover lets you choose Every screen, The main screen only or Screens I choose.
