Monday's Mac Gadget by John F. Braun Protect Your Mac from Evil October 18th, 1999 Keys Off 1.3.1 ($10 Shareware) Cliff McCollum & Blue Globe Software If you're Mac is in a shared environment, such as an office, lab or store display, you may want to protect it from intentional or unintentional access. Although screen savers with password protection are available, you may want to apply a finer level of control over what actions are allowed. Plus, you may want to be able to have applications other than a screen saver running... Keys Off can protect your system against several forms of fiddling. Basic protection is offered via integration with the included BlackWatch screen saver. Enhanced protection against a restart or shutdown by disabling the Power Key is available. All keyboard access, or only command-key combinations, can be blocked. Access to the menubar, as well as all mouse clicks, can be restricted. Finally, you can prevent copying or reboot attempts by disabling disk insertions. Protection can be activated by several means; immediately at startup, after a certain period of inactivity, or when the system enters sleep mode. You can choose to restore the last Keys Off state after reboot, to prevent a simple restart from bypassing the security. Finally, a menu option can be used to disable the shift key during restart, to prevent bypassing Keys Off during startup. This makes changes to your System file, so be sure to make a backup. Protect your Mac against the forces of evil with Keys Off. Useful Link Keys Off Home Page Protect Your Mac Against Several Forms of Input Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs. John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at You can also Post Your Comments below. Current Monday's Mac Gadget Want to Supercharge Your Dock? Check Out Todos! - August 21st Worried About Your Mac Getting Jacked? Get JackSMS - June 12th Want iChat with Tabs? Try Chax! - April 3rd Visit Monday's Mac Gadget Archives for more great Mac Gadgets!