[Tip] Create A Lock Down Computer Shortcut

Lockdown my PC

We have previously covered how to create desktop shortcuts for shutdown and hibernation here at Techrena. Many readers of our site found them to be useful. We thought like when we could have shortcuts for shutting down and hibernation, why can’t we have shortcut for locking the computer user ? To begin with, if you don’t know yet, there is a much simpler Win + L (press Start key while holding “L” button your keyboard) shortcut already available to do the same and is easier as well.

We are just writing this tip to let you know that you can create shortcut for locking down your computer as well. It’s up to you to use this or the most preferred Win + L short key. Follow the steps below to add the shortcut to your desktop.

1. Right-click on your desktop (on any blank area) and select New > Shortcut.

create new shortcut

2. Type rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation in the “Type the location of the item” filed in the window and click next.

Type shortcut location

3. Give a name to the shortcut (something like Lockdown My PC) and click “Finish” to complete the setup.

Lockdown shortcut name

4. Now the shortcut for locking down your computer appears on desktop. You can even customize it by adding some colourful icon to it.

Lockdown shortcut on desktop

Clicking on it will lockdown the computer. This works well on Windows XP, Windows Vista and even on Windows 7. You need to login back to your computer by providing your credentials if you need to unlock it again. Of course I still prefer to use Win + L shortcut (to which I got used much to) than this, anyway it’s always good to explore and find new things, even if they had alternatives Smile.

Create Keyboard Shortcuts For Programs in Windows

Windows logo

At Techrena, we always strive bring the best available tricks for making your life easier.We have been updating our blog off late with lot of interesting windows and internet tips and more.

Today we are coming up with a very easy but effective feature in Windows, adding keyboard shortcuts to the windows programs.This saves a bit of time particularly if you need to open that program too frequently.Just like our last week’s tutorial about adding keyword shortcuts to Firefox bookmarks.

Follow these steps to add Keyboard shortcuts to your favorite programs.

1. Right click on the program icon and select “Properties”.

2. Find the “Shortcut” tab under the properties.Look for “Shortcut key” under the tab.

keyboard shortcut for programs in windows

3. Use your keyboard to assign a shortcut key for this program.

4. Click “Apply” and press “Ok”.

Now you use the shortcut that you have set to launch the applications directly.In the above case, I have added “Ctrl + Alt + N” to launch notepad.