The (external) keyboard shortcut to lock the screen with the screen save

keyboard

Which keys can I press to bring up the locked screen save while I walk away for a few minutes?
I have an external keyboard (MS Comfort Curve 2000) thru a multi pc switcher box so I have ctrl-cmd-alt keys but no option key and everything I've tried so far doesn't work.

Best Answer

You can use Control + Shift + Eject to put your display to sleep but also to lock your screen. If you don't have an Eject key, you need to use an Automator based workaround to assign your own shortcut. Alternatively, you can set a Hot Corner for the screensaver to start in System Preferences.

For the locking to work, you have to tell OS X to require a password immediately after sleep in System Preferences > Security & Privacy:

When this is set, the above key combo will lock your screen and a password is required to unlock it.