Locking Windows

From the April 2001 Edition
of Windows IT Pro
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Windows 2000 and Windows NT provide the ability to lock your workstation by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, then clicking Lock Workstation. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Alt+Del, then press Enter.

Win2K users who find that this process requires too much effort can create a shortcut on their desktop to lock their computers. To do so, right-click on the desktop, then click New, Shortcut. In the resulting Create Shortcut wizard, the system prompts you to type the location of the item. Type

rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

(A single space exists between rundll32 and user32.dll, but there are no other spaces in the line.) Click Next. You're then prompted for a name for the shortcut. Enter

Lock Computer

and click Finish. Test the shortcut by double-clicking it. The computer should go into locked mode.

If you're really lazy and you don't want to waste the effort getting to the desktop to double-click the shortcut, you can assign a shortcut key to the icon. To do so, right-click the shortcut and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, select a keystroke for activating the shortcut. Be sure to choose a keystroke that's not used for other applications; Ctrl+Alt+L is a good selection.

If pressing all these keys is too close to the original Ctrl+Alt+Del process, you can add the shortcut icon to your Quick Launch toolbar. Right-click a blank space on the taskbar, select Toolbars, and ensure that the Quick Launch check box is selected. On the Taskbar, you'll see a section that includes icons such as Show Desktop and Internet Explorer. Drag the shortcut you created to the Quick Launch area of the Taskbar. You'll then be able to click the icon and the computer will lock.

—Chris Taylor
ctaylor@nrcan.gc.ca

End of Article

I create a shorcut and On the command line: I type rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkstation the following error occurs
Error in user32.dll Missing entry:lockworkstation
Do I misunderstand something???

Dirk Sanders April 11, 2001

I just tried the shortcut and received the same error as Dirk. What is missing from the article/instructions? Thanks

J.M.Gilmore April 12, 2001

Lock Computer

i right click on desktop make shortcut
target = %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

shortcut key Ctrl + Alt + L

Works good lasts all day

Carl Hinkle April 13, 2001

In order for this tip to work you must enter the full path to the file as is shown in the following example: 

c:\winnt\System32\rundll32.exe 
user32.dll,LockWorkStation

Michael Otey April 16, 2001

I too gentlemen received the same error message when I tried this procedure. However, in my haste to type in the shortcut, I neglected to make sure that the 'LockWorkStation' portion was entered exactly as printed. To the best of my knowledge, this shortcut is calling a procedure inside the user32.dll file called LockWorkStation. Most dll's are usually written in C, and are therefore case sensitive. Hope this helps guys.

Phil Miller April 20, 2001

I have just tried this shortcut using all the suggestions, and I receive the error Dirk did. Now, can anyone who got this to work explain what I maybe doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

Terrence Baptiste May 11, 2001

For the people receiving an error, and you're certain the syntax is correct, make sure you are running this on a Windows 2000 machine. It will not work on Windows NT 4.0. The article does point this out, but it is a bit deceiving since the author in one paragraph states:
 
"Windows 2000 and Windows NT provide the ability to lock your workstation by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, then clicking Lock Workstation."
 
And in the very next paragragh the author writes:
 
"Win2K users who find that this process requires too much effort can create a shortcut on their desktop to lock their computers."
 
I haven't tried this yet myself, but I have looked at the user32.dll on Windows NT and compared it to the user32.dll on Windows 2000 Professional. The Windows 2000 professional user32.dll has the LockWorkStation entry point while the Windows NT 4.0 user32.dll does not.
 
Hope this helps...

Tom Markham May 11, 2001

Hello. All of you make the same mistake. The command IS Case Sensitive!!! In Start/Run string like that should work:
rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

Good luck, and happy locking :)

kuolas June 30, 2004

Or you could just hit Windows+L ...

Anonymous User November 03, 2004

no you can't just hit windows+L on a Win2k box, that works on XP and 2003, not 2k.

Anonymous User December 01, 2004

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