Screen Pass

by Noel Crombie

Screen Pass allows you to protect your desktop with a password when it resumes after the screen is blanked. It works with the ScreenBlanker module provided with RISC OS 3.1 and later.

If you run the program normally, you will be prompted for a password; this password will then be required to exit the screen blanker. Any combination of letters, number and punctuation is allowed, but spaces are not. The password is case-sensitive, so for example cheese will not match CheesE.

While Screen Pass is running, you can also press Alt-F12 to activate the screen blanker straight away.

If you wish to set the password non-interactively, for example in your boot sequence, you can do it by running the program with a command using the -password option. For example, you could add this command to your !Boot sequence:

          Run $.Utilities.!ScrnPass -password Cheese

If you have a Risc PC, you can also use the -fslock option. If this is included, a failed attempt to get back to the desktop will re-lock the machine if it has been temporarily unlocked (from the Lock window in Configure).

Copyright  RISC User magazine 1998