If you’re sensitive about what’s on your computer and you want to take no chances with leaving it open for other people to see when you’re not there, what you need to do is to learn to secure it – how to lock a computer.There are so many ways you can do this and you don’t need to be an IT expert as Brice from Pisys.net will explain. The simplest way of course would be set things up so that your Windows account is password-protected, and then to log out of your user account every time you leave.
Of course, this can be a bit of a hassle. Every time you come back, your do have to key your password in again. Pretty soon, you’re just going to get fed up with the whole thing and neglect to lock your computer at all. The question is – how to lock a computer easily enough that it won’t get old.
For Windows users, a free software download called Predator is an excellent solution. And it isn’t just excellent for the way in which it makes it easy. There is also a coolness part.
This is the way it works. You just need to download the software and install it to your computer and to a USB thumb drive. Your computer will be on,awake and accessible for as long as the thumb drive is plugged in. When you need to run to the bathroom, you just need to pull out the thumb drive and get going. When you’re ready to use your computer again, you just need to stab the thumb drive back into the USB port, and you’re good to go in an instant. The use of a thumthe drive makes this so much like using a key.
But let’s say that you are not worried about people prying, as much as you are worried that people could just take your laptop and bolt.
When someone takes your laptop and runs, don’t you wish that there was something on your laptop that could begin to wail like a car alarm?How much of a deterrent this would be, is anybody’s guess. But you could try Laptop Alarm. If it feels that there’s anything strange going on, it’ll quickly take as many pictures as it can, and it will start screaming. A noisy laptop may not really stop professional thieves; but it could deter unprofessional ones.
iHound is software that lives on USB drives. When one gets stolen, the software will automatically send you geolocation information. It reads the IP address of the computer that it’s connected to, and it sends you that information.
These aren’t about how to lock a computer, of course. They are rather meant for use as an adjunct to actual locking solutions.