Windows Vista™ Plain & Simple

Protecting Your Account

One of the easiest ways for someone to access your private files is waiting until you leave your computer unattended for a while and then jumping onto the computer using your already logged-on account. To prevent this, you can lock out any access to the computer by other people via your account. However, you can allow other people to log on using their own accounts and to have network access to the computer. When you lock the computer, all your programs and open files remain running but unavailable until you enter your password.

Lock the Computer

1. Make sure that you have a password assigned to your account.

2. Click the Start ...