Whenever I step away from my windows pc, I like to lock the screen. This way anyone who walked up to my pc, only gets to see the welcome screen. The easiest way I find to lock my pc is simply to have an icon on my desktop that says Lock Computer that I click on and the pc locks. In today’s post we will review the simple steps it takes to create the desktop icon. This is How To Lock Windows PC Via Desktop File
Locking Your PC – Why?
If you walk away from your desk, even for a brief moment, do you lock your computer? You may not think it’s a big deal, but leaving your computer unlocked is a lot like leaving your car running with the doors unlocked. Just like anyone could jump in your car and take it, anyone could sit at your computer and gain access to your private information or impersonate you. So what could really happen
- How many records do you keep on your pc? Do you have your bank or credit card accounts saved on the web browser, so that you don’t have to remember the info when you log in? Guess what the person at your pc just gained access to your banking or credit card information.
- Do you have instant messages, emails, or documents on your pc that you consider private, that you don’t want anyone to know about? Guess what the person at your pc just saw those messages.
- Do you save personal pictures on your pc that you don’t want anyone to see? Guess what the person at your pc just saw those too.
Then there is the impersonate part. Does the person that just got on your pc hold a grudge against you, or anyone else?
- So now that person can send an instant message, email, or post to social media (again with the saved credentials), making it look like it came from you. They can say anything they want, and you will have to be the one who will have some explaining to do. I’ve seen people get fired over this kind of situation.
Creating The Desktop Lock File
To create the file, it’s easy and should take you a total of 3 steps. Here are the 3 steps you need.
- Go to your Windows desktop and right mouse click on an empty area of the screen. In the message that appears select New -> Shortcut
- In the window that appears, either copy and paste or type the following (shown below) and click next.
rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
- In the next window, in the area that says to Type a name, just type Lock Computer, and click Finish
That’s it. Now when you look at your desktop, you should see an icon that says Lock Computer.
Every time you click that file, your computer will automatically lock. These instructions work for all versions of Windows.
