InputLock
InputLock locks the physical keyboard and mouse of your machine with one key combination,
and leaves everything else running. Automation keeps working: a UI test that clicks and types through
SendInput carries on exactly as before, while somebody sitting down at the desk can do
nothing at all until the combination is pressed again.
It exists for one situation. At home you can leave the machine unlocked while a test suite drives an application for an hour. In an office you cannot: an unlocked, unattended machine is a security problem, and locking Windows stops the tests, because a locked desktop takes no input from anybody. InputLock sits between the two.
What the desk shows while it is locked. The application under test keeps running underneath.
Under a minute of it, step by step: setting it up, locking, your tests carrying on underneath, coming back with the PIN, and the report of what happened while you were away. Every picture in it is InputLock drawing itself. The same tour is a video if you would rather watch it at full size.
Getting started
The first time InputLock starts, a short guide opens: six pages, with Back and Next, on what it is for, the key combination, what the desk sees, a PIN, running tests, and three choices to finish with - Start with Windows, Check for updates when InputLock starts and your name for the lock screen. Only Finish applies those three; Close leaves everything as it was. Getting started on the padlock's menu opens it again at any time.
The guide's first page, its picture of the lock screen - drawn from your settings - and its last page.
Contents
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Locking and unlocking | Locking, unlocking, the PIN, the way back when it is forgotten, and the report on unlocking. |
| Settings | Every setting: the hotkey, the PIN, the lock screen and its preview, auto-lock and startup. |
| Administrator and Start with Windows | Why to run it elevated, and starting with Windows without a UAC prompt each time. |
| Running tests while locked | What gets through while locked, screenshots, and locking from a script. |
| What it protects against, and what it does not | What it protects against - and, just as plainly, what it does not. |
| Files and command line | InputLock.ini, every key in it, and the command line. |
| Troubleshooting | A forgotten PIN, a hotkey that does nothing, keys that get through, and more. |
In a hurry
| Press | What happens |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L | Lock: the physical keyboard and mouse stop, the screen goes dark, your tests carry on. |
| Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L again | Unlock - then type your PIN and press Enter, if you have set one. |
| Enter, with nothing typed | Forgot the PIN? Sign in to Windows instead; that unlocks InputLock too. |
| Click the padlock | The menu: Lock now, Settings, Start with Windows, Getting started, Check for updates, help. |
| Double-click the padlock | Lock, as the key combination does. |
| InputLock.exe --lock | Lock from a script. Nothing can unlock from one. |