Lock Your Windows PC With A Transparent Lock

You can always lock your Windows PC, without turning it off, by using the keyboard shortcut Win Key + L. But if you have programs running which you want others to see you can use a tiny application called ClearLock. This application unlike the regular Lock function in the operating system aims at disabling input to your computer while acting as a transparent layer.

ClearLock is free of charge and requires no installation. All the settings you make to it are saved in its own folder, so you can also use it as a portable application. It is a nifty little software with merely an Mb in size and can be run on both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows 7, Vista and XP. 

ClearLock keeps a score of any failed login attempts and will display the unsuccessful attempts after you type in the correct password. This way you can learn if someone tried to break into your computer while you were away.

The downside of this application is that it must be configured by using command prompt or by manually editing the configuration file located in the same folder. Luckily, they have provided a readme file with all the necessary instructions. But once you learn how to access the configuration options, can change the default message displayed when the computer is locked and also set a different number of invalid attempts until lockout occurs.

Another problem with this application is that it is buggy. A bug I noticed while testing this software was that it treats a phrase with and without [space] as the same. That is, for example, if you are using the phrase "let me in" as your password, you can also gain access to your system by typing "letmein" also. Since this app is in the early stages of development, I'm sure these bugs will be rectified soon.