I've gotten in the habit of locking my work computer whenever I walk away from it. It's a great added layer of security and it takes just a split second to lock and a moment (or two) to unlock. Not that I have much to hide, but it's just good to know that someone won't see something and take it the wrong way or muck with my settings as a practical joke. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as "Meta"-L on a Mac.

Enter Butler. A tremendously useful customization tool to some; a light-weight background task to satiate my need for a simple, but missing feature on the Mac. I've simply set it up to respond to Command-Shift-L by pulling up the Login Window, which is essentially the same effect as Windows' screen lock.

Set-up (once Butler is installed) is simple:

1. Go into System Preferences' Accounts pane, click Login Options, and turn on "Enable fast user switching".
2. Open up Butler's Customize/Configuration window and create a new "Smart Item > Fast user switching".
3. Click the Hot Key field and type in your hot key combo of choice.
4. Optional: If you're like me, you won't want all the other stuff Butler provides initially, so you can drag it all to the Hidden group to retain it for future use.

Again, I have nothing against using Butler to its fullest; I just have my bookmarks in my Delicious tab that's always open or nearby, web search in the corner of my browser window, dictionary search in the same place or on my Dashboard, quick Volume/HD/App/Home access in my Docs, you get the point. Regardless, I couldn't find a tool that does what I need better.

Get it at <http://www.manytricks.com/butler/>