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• ‹ Windows Vista Safety and Security
• User Accounts and Profiles
• Overview
• Types of user accounts
• Your user account profile and settings
• Change your user account picture
• Add / change your user account password
• Remove your user account's password
• Change your user name
• Change your user account type
• Switch user without logging off
• Lock your computer
• Create a new user account
• Disable a user's account
• Remove or delete a user's account

Lock your computer in Windows Vista

When you work with Windows Vista in a multi-user environment (like an office), you may at times have to leave your computer unattended. To avoid office pranks or protect your data, Vista lets you "lock" your computer: no-one will be able to take over your PC, or look at what you were working on. Other people will be able to switch user, or even turn off the computer, but they will not be able to see your data unless they know your password (assuming your user account is password-protected, as it should).

Lock your Vista PC (the slow way)

To go through the Start Menu to lock your PC is the slowest way, but the easiest to remember: click on the Start Menu, and click on the Lock button. That's it!

If you are using the Classic Start Menu, read on.

Lock your Windows Vista computer using Control-Alt-Delete

Another way to lock your computer is to hold the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys on your keyboard simultaneously: Windows Vista will display a list of commands, the first of which reads "Lock this computer". Click it, and your PC will now be locked until you log back in by supplying your password.

Keyboard shortcut to lock your PC in Windows Vista (the fast way!)

The fastest way to lock your computer is to use a keyboard shortcut: this keyboard shortcut works not only with Windows Vista, but with most or all older versions of Windows (like Windows XP). Hold down the Windows logo key on your keyboard, and press L (as in "Lock"). And your computer is locked in a single keystroke, whatever you were working on at the time!

These are three common ways to lock your Windows Vista PC; keep in mind that locking your computer is only as safe as the password you picked for your user account.