Master password

[Peterdragin]

is there a way to keep anyone from signing on to my 'puter, like a password, while I am away from it? Like the kids that want to get on, but I don't want them to. Does this make sense?

 

[Corny]

A bios password or just a password for your user account in windows will suffice. the later you can set from within the control panel (users/accounts)

 

[kevin23]

Here ya go. Assuming you have Windows XP

http://www.ehow.com/how_2319430_set-administrator-account-password-windows.html

 

[star-warrior]

When creating new accounts, you have the choice of Administrator and Standard accounts, the latter is recommended for other users. You will be able to set your own password and that for other users too.

My Win Vista machine has it locate here

Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts

 

[Corny]

I use a pattern of the keyboard as opposed to a password.

My old password was something like this: lake4587

My new password is something like this: zaq12wsx

both are very bad passwords. not as bad as qwerty123 but almost as bad.

 

[Peterdragin]

I did not phrase my question clearly. What I want is to be able to lock the entire 'puter down, so that no one except me can access it. By just useing my screen password they can still access"switch user".

 

[trinket]

Sorry, Peterdragin, your "While I am away from it" threw me also, I just thought you meant when you left it unattended momentarily, in that case the Windows solutions might suffice. Corny's BIOS password suggestion is good if your BIOS supports that option. (See this or this for the general instructions.)

Also, this is probably great overkill for your needs, but TrueCrypt supports encrypting your OS drive and at boot time prompts for a password between the BIOS and OS loading stage, and you can't get into the drive and load the OS without keying the password correctly. See this for info.

 

[Peterdragin]

Thank you, trinkit, sounds like what I need. Checkin' it out now!