Locking a Mac's screen

Apparently my place of employment is full of nefarious people just waiting for me to walk away from my computer so that they can steal my codes or use my internets to access unsavoury parts of the web such as here, here, and here (follow these links at your peril).

Thus, it is required that every time I heave my juddering frame out of my chair to wander off on some aimless task I must ensure that the many computers (two) I commune with are locked in order for them to be in pristine condition when I return.

One of said computers is running that most unhappy of operating systems: Windows. Although, it is slightly happier that the version it is forced to consume is Windows XP as opposed to its younger sibling. The other computer, a vision of elegance (and not a little smugness as a result), executes Mac OS X during its daily power cycle.

Locking the Windows box is fairly simple. Most who have grown up with Windows 2000 and (I assume) Windows 98 will know that to lock such a computer is as simple as Ctrl-Alt-Del and then click the "Lock Computer" button. However, a process that includes the mouse is a process that can be improved (IMHO). Thus, I was happy to discover the shortcut of holding the Windows key, on keyboards that offer such a key, and pressing the L key will happily lock the machine. (I think I discovered this combination by accident as I was probably trying to hit Ctrl-L in a browser to get to the address bar. Slightly off track but Windows-E and Windows-R also do useful things).

For the longest time I have not been aware of similar keyboard simplicity for locking the screen of the Mac box. In fact, up until recently I just had to wait for the screen saver to kick in, with the appropriate System Preferences set to require a password when waking from sleep or screen saver. Slightly more recently, after a google search, I found the app that invokes the screen saver and dragged it to the dock so a click could invoke the process I had, until then, had to wait for 10 minutes to start. Slightly after that I bound the invocation of this app to the lower right hot corner so that a fling of the mouse in that direction starts the screen saver and I am free to wander off on the aforementioned aimless tasks.

However, and say it with me now, a process that includes the mouse is a process that can be improved.

Thus, it was with a squeak of glee that I came across this hint on OS X Daily. Hitting the key combination Ctrl-Shift-Eject will turn the display off and, if the System Preferences have been set to require password after sleep or screen saver begins (its on the General tab of the Security page), the machine is locked.

Happiness ensues.