4 Easy Ways To Lock Down Your Mac’s Screen

Most of my daily work is done on a MacBook that I carry with me nearly everywhere I go. That accounts for a sense of urgency to make sure my Mac is locked down tight; not easy to get into.

While looking through a search list of Mac apps that lock the screen, I came across one that uses facial recognition. I’m not ready to go that route yet because I look different at different times during the day (mornings are not good for facial recognition), but an app that does knows me from someone else is worth a look.

So are three other ways to lock down your Mac’s screen.

Lock Me Baby, One More Time

Locking a Mac’s screen couldn’t be much easier. You can set the Mac’s System Preferences to lock the screen after sleep or when the screen saver trips.

That’s one way. It’s easy and but not all that secure to a knowledgable thief.

Another free way is to use the Mac’s built-in Keychain Access app.

Select Preferences, select the General Tab, then click the Show Keychain Status In Menu Bar. There’s an option to Lock Screen. Your user password gets you back in when you’re locked out.

What about facial recognition? KeyLemon is the Mac app that uses facial recognition technology and your Mac’s iSight or FaceTime camera as your password.

First, you’ll create a face model. Second, KeyLemon uses that face as your entry password. It works. Mostly. Sometimes a changed hairstyle or a scruffy beard can prevent a user from using the Mac.

Less expensive and quite familiar is Swipe Lock. It’s swiped the iPhone and iPad swipe lock look and feel and made it into a Mac app. Click the swipe button and slide it to the right, and your Mac is unlocked.

Other Mac apps purport to give you a locked down screen. Lock Me Now is free but does the same thing as Apple’s Keychain Access.

Lock Screen does the same thing and imitates the swipe lock of Apple’s iOS devices, but using the keyboard instead of a touch screen.

The video tells the story.

Even with a screen lock, your Mac could be easy to get into if the thief is knowledgeable about Macs. Personally, I like the idea of a combination of voice and facial recognition. Maybe that will show up in iOS for Mac in 2013.

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