Odd question about minimising

Hi

Is it possible to have all my windows minimise the the bottom automatically

Like a screensaver kicks in after a set time, if i am reading something on my screen that i dont want to be in view when i walk away

I can do it manually every time but its a pain, i could lock it by pressing "window + L"but then i dont want to log back in every time i come back to my desk

This question is a bit random but hey if you dont ask.....

Thanks in advance

Lee H

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Comments

Mishra

You just need to learn to lock your machine when you leave your desk. It is a good skill to get used to security wise. Many companies REQUIRE it.

dave0212

windows key + m

Will minimise all your windows.

But if you are leaving your desk you should really lock it

Lee H

That would work Mishra, but as i already stated i dont want to log into my pc over 50 times a day

doing so many thing at once in work makes you want to automate the little things to you dont waste time doing things that arnt so important, ya get me

Lee H

Mishra

Lee H wrote:

That would work Mishra, but as i already stated i dont want to log into my pc over 50 times a day

doing so many thing at once in work makes you want to automate the little things to you dont waste time doing things that arnt so important, ya get me

Lee H

At my old company we implemented a security policy that made you have 2 accounts. One account was to be your user account where you log in, check your mail, and change your desktop background. The other account was your enterprise level account. When you wanted to launch ADUC or ANY administration tool you had to launch it with a RunAs and specify your enterprise account credentials over and over again.

Sometimes things can't be automated in the name of security.

hetty

If you are in a workgroup you could use a cheap fingerprint scanner, if you are in a domain you would have to buy licenses to use it.

techster79

dave0212 wrote:

windows key + m

Will minimise all your windows.

But if you are leaving your desk you should really lock it

I've always used window key + d, m does nothing for me.

dynamik

m is minimize and d is show desktop. They basically do the same thing. Maybe your m key is broken.

blargoe

Lee H wrote:

That would work Mishra, but as i already stated i dont want to log into my pc over 50 times a day

doing so many thing at once in work makes you want to automate the little things to you dont waste time doing things that arnt so important, ya get me

Lee H

If you are an administrator on the network, locking your workstation is not unimportant nor is it a waste of time.

undomiel

The thing I like about superkey+d is that it will minimize everything and then if you press it again it will restore everything, unlike superkey+m.

And as for Lee I would highly recommend locking your computer when you're away from it. It only takes 2 seconds to hit ctrl-alt-del and your password. Time varies depending upon typing speed and familiarity with your password, of course.

shon541

Hit Windows key + L and be done with it. You should be locking your computer.

Ricka182

You could always enable the quicklaunch on the taskbar, and put a show desktop button there. Then, one click and all windows are minimized......

Lee H

Thanks for all your input guys

I understand the importance of locking your PC and i know i should be doing it, current position is relaxed regarding security so no need to be locking desktop all staff are trustworthy its a small company, i am up and down all day and i just get fed up minimising all my windows.

Thanks guys

Lee

dynamik

It depends on your setup too. I lock mine out of habit, but there's no real reason to do so. I run on an XP machine as a regular user and either remote desktop or log on locally to the servers. Anyone who obtained access to my machine would only have access to various emails and files, none of which are the least bit sensitive.

There's always a trade-off between security on convenience, and the best balance will vary depending on the situation.

cacharo

Lee H wrote:

Thanks for all your input guys

I understand the importance of locking your PC and i know i should be doing it, current position is relaxed regarding security so no need to be locking desktop all staff are trustworthy its a small company, i am up and down all day and i just get fed up minimising all my windows.

Thanks guys

Lee

Why are you minimizing your windows? If it is because you don't want people looking at stuff or playing with you computer, you really aren't protecting yourself much by doing so. And I am sure you know by now what you should be doing... maybe a fingerprint scanner or smartcard would help or you could always change the password policy to accept simple passwords and create a more simple password for logging in.

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

m is minimize and d is show desktop. They basically do the same thing. Maybe your m key is broken.

An interesting bit of WinXP trivia is that the Show Desktop icon in the Quick Launch bar is incorrectly labeled "Show Desktop" when it is actually a shortcut to the "Toggle Desktop" function. I assume this is on purpose because Microsoft has never relabeled it.

undomiel

I could see Toggle Desktop being more confusing than Show Desktop to the general masses.

Lee H

Why are you minimizing your windows? If it is because you don't want people looking at stuff or playing with you computer, you really aren't protecting yourself much by doing so. And I am sure you know by now what you should be doing...

I of course understand the importance of "locking" your PC, in the environment that i work in it is not a security risk to leave my PC unlocked, and if i can avoid putting in my password 50 times a day then i will, what i do though is minimise all my windows

I have thought of an idea though, take a screen shot of my entire desktop, save it as a screensaver, it would then appear that i was at my desktop when the screen saver started, lol

Lee H

cacharo

I am still curious about the why of it all. What are you trying to accomplish by minimizing if there are no security risks?

Lee H

I am still curious about the why of it all. What are you trying to accomplish by minimizing if there are no security risks?

I can say 100% that nobody will sit at my desk and riffle through my docs, but there may be a glance at my monitor when someone walks past

It was more of a "Is it possible" question than a "I gotta be able to do this" question

Lee H

mrhaun03

Lee H wrote:

Hi

Is it possible to have all my windows minimise the the bottom automatically

Like a screensaver kicks in after a set time, if i am reading something on my screen that i dont want to be in view when i walk away

I can do it manually every time but its a pain, i could lock it by pressing "window + L"but then i dont want to log back in every time i come back to my desk

This question is a bit random but hey if you dont ask.....

Thanks in advance

Lee H

Don't be lookin at p0rn all day and you wont have to hide your screen.

undomiel

Ok, alternative idea then. Make a shortcut to your screensaver and then set the shortcut to activate at a specific keypress i.e. ctrl-alt-j.