Screenblur

SCREEN LOCK TOOL www.snipca.com/17878

What you need:

Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8/8.1 or 10 The idea of a lock screen is nothing new if you’ve got a phone and tablet – or if you use Windows 8, 8.1 or 10, all of which have built-in screen-freeze functions to shut out prying eyes. A tool like this is also vital if you live with kids or cats who like to play with or sit on your keyboard, deleting files and potentially murdering your PC as they do so, bless ’em.

Screenblur takes the basic screen-lock idea and turns it into a sophisticated tool with dozens of configuration options, some or all of which you can set to leap into action when you lock the screen. These will then remain locked until you enter your password.

For example, you can set the program to minimise all your running programs automatically and instantly – useful if you’re busy designing your spouse’s birthday card in Photoshop Elements and they suddenly enter the room. Other options include muting your PC’S sound; hiding the Taskbar and Desktop icons; locking automatically when your PC goes into idle mode; displaying a certain photo or colour The Settings window lets you configure your lock screen at any time. Open it by running Screenblur and rightclicking the red padlock in your system tray. Click Automation for options such as automatically locking the screen in idle mode, muting your PC’S sound, and hiding Desktop icons and windows when locked. when locked; and even changing the font. You can prevent the idle-mode lock being activated at certain times, such as when you’re watching a film on your computer, or shut down your PC automatically if it’s been locked for long enough.

Screenblur is a portable program so there’s no installation wizard to endure, but you’ll need to click through a few set-up screens before it’s ready to go. Download, save and extract the ZIP, and then click the program file (Screenblur. exe) to run it. Click OK to use the default settings (Verdana as your lock-screen font, for example), then OK again to accept the terms and choose a password (make it memorable – see our feature in Issue 455 for tips). Once that’s done, you can press Enter to lock the screen at any time and then unlock it using your password. To change your lock settings (see screenshot below) at any time, run the program, right-click the red lock icon in your system tray and click Settings. For lots of useful extra tips, see the discussion thread on the Screenblur website ( www.snipca.com/17876). Click Hotkeys to choose keyboard shortcuts for locking the screen, activating Desktop Blackout and – very usefully – opening the Settings window. Click Interface to choose lock-screen photos, colours and fonts, plus lock types such as ‘Access Denied’ and ‘Cat-proof’ (yes, this is an actual option).

Today’s most popular way to share photos is via Facebook. On the face of it, it’s definitely not what you’re looking for. However it does allow you to create private, secure albums that you can share with certain people (or just one person) only – as long as they are Facebook members. It’s the most convenient option, not to mention free, so is worth considering.

Flickr ( www.flickr.com) is much more sophisticated and lets you share your photos in albums and sets, using templates you choose. It has many privacy options, so you can let anyone, certain people or no-one see your photos, add comments or even download them.

But we suspect your best option may be Dropbox ( www. dropbox.com, see screenshot). You can use it entirely online (you can ‘Download the app’, as the homepage exhorts, but you don’t have to – though it will give you extra storage space for free) and it lets you create photo albums almost as gorgeous as those on Flickr (full instructions at www.snipca. com/17883). You can now share photos and albums with people who don’t have a Dropbox account ( www.snipca. com/17884). You get 2GB storage space for free, and it’s £7.99 a month for 1TB, plus more sharing features. The Help Center ( www.dropbox.com/help) is also excellent – another reason to use Dropbox for sharing your precious memories.

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