Locking your Workstation in OSX

surbahnssurbahns
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
My organization requires all PCs to have a screen saver that once you haven't used your p.c. in 10 minutes (Like you walked away) that it should require you to login again before you continue using the p.c.. Is there a way I can make my mac mini require me to log back in if I haven't used the system after 10 minutes? I of course want my work to remain running so I don't want to open everything back up again.



I've looked under the Screen Savers options but I don't see where I can enable such a feature.



Thanks in Advance.



-Stuart

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    code mastercode master Posts: 344member
    It's under the Security Prefs Pane. It will take you to a login screen so others can login to the same computer without you losing your stuff, just like in Windows.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    And if you goto Expose you can set a hot corner to start the screen saver that will lock the screen.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    dstranathandstranathan Posts: 1,717member
    1 security flaw:



    The System Pref Pan, called "Security", used to lock the screen after sleep... CAN'T BE LOCKED! LOL.



    Try it. As an admin (or user) check the box that says "lock after sleep/screen saver whatever" (In the "Security" Pref Pane), and then log in as another user. Any other user can simply *uncheck* the option to lock the screen. You will see that while many System Pref Panes can be locked, most of the "Security" Pane can't be locked. Hmmm.



    As an admin, I have had to lock the .plist in the Finder (Get Info box) or from the Terminal (chflags command). The trick is that the preference .plist is not global, it is user-specific, and thus each user has a .plist. To make it even harder to manage, the .plist is in the user's "byHost" folder, and the MAC (NIC ID) is *embedded* into the filename of the .plist! (go look at it in /Users/<username>/Library/Prefs/byHost/com.apple.screensaverblah.<MAC_address>.plist)



    YUCK!
  • Reply 4 of 4
    mattjohndrowmattjohndrow Posts: 1,618member
    just set your screensaver to turn on after 10 minutes, and have it require the password to wake from sleep or screensaver, in the security panel
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