BlockInput

It’s never a good idea to leave your computer unattended, not even if it’s for a short while. A simple way is to lock your station through Windows default features, which means you need to write the user password to unlock it when you come back. An alternative is to use applications like BlockInput to simply cut connection to mouse and keyboard for a specific amount of time.

First of all, you can carry the application with you on a thumb drive to lock both your home, and work computers this way, since it requires no installation in order to function. This keeps the target PC’s health status intact, because registries don’t need to be modified to enable functionality.

The only thing you need to remember is that administrator privileges are required for the lockdown to be efficient, otherwise you just end up with a time, and input still enabled. As soon as it starts, the application gets minimized to the tray area as soon as it starts, so you might want to pay a visit to the corresponding icon to configure time, and hotkey options.

The core function of the application is to completely cut off keyboard, and mouse input for a limited period of time. This is only triggered through a hotkey command. There’s a set configured by default, but it can be changed, especially if the predefined one is already in use. Apart from button combination, you also need to set time value in seconds.

Your screen remains unchanged upon lockdown, but there is a countdown timer which shows up next to the cursor, letting you know how much there is to wait. Sadly, there’s no possibility to cancel this operation, but neither is it foolproof. Although it prevents keyboard and mouse interaction, the Ctrl + Alt + Del command sequence overrides functionality, leaving your PC vulnerable again.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that BlockInput is a simple way to prevent others from using your computer while you’re away. Sure enough, you mustn’t stray off longer than the specified time. It all goes well, with a configurable lock hotkey, but it could have used with an option to cancel, or disable lockdown manually.