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How To Password Protect Running Programs & Apps Using LockThis

LockThis Let’s say a program (for example Firefox) is open on your computer and you are doing some important (or private) activities. Now, suppose someone, like a friend or colleague, suddenly comes up at your desk and needs to borrow your PC to get something done.

If you don’t want that person to see what you were doing in Firefox, closing the browser is always an option. But that’s not the perfect solution since you lose your work (or lose time, if you do “save and quit” and then reopen everything again).

A good workaround would be to password protect running programs before you lend your PC to someone else. LockThis does exactly the same. You can lock individual or more than one apps at a time using this tool.

lock programs

How to use LockThis

1. Download and install the tool.

2. Press “Ctrl” while minimizing the application. For example: minimize the Firefox browser with “Ctrl” key pressed. A small LockThis icon will flash on the middle of the desktop. It means Firefox browser is locked and no one can open the browser without the password.

Note: The default password is LockThis!

How to change LockThis default password

1. Right click on its systray icon and select “Admin Panel”.

admin panel of LockThis

2. On password field, type LockThis!. This is the default password for this app.

lockthis password

3. The Admin panel will open. Here you can change the default password by clicking on “Change admin password” button. Also, you could decide if you want to use a single password for all apps and change the admin password to something else.

lock this admin panel

If you try to close this tool by right click on the system tray icon then also it asks for the password. Therefore the user can’t bypass the security.

Overall, it’s a nice tool to quickly password protect what you are doing and eliminate the hassle of saving your work and closing it. It works well with XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Download LockThis! to protect your running programs from prying eyes.

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Written By and published on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010.


  • Ryuk

    unfortunately this doesn’t work on firefox portable.
    But it works in iron portable. I don’t know why they’re both portable but it doesn’t work on firefox portable

    • Abhijeet

      Does it give an error message or something? Or do you have confusion regarding what it does (check my reply to Roger) ? I think it should work. Let me know what exactly happens.

  • roger

    According to the LockThis website known issues are that Firefox “3.x” cannot be locked and IE8 stops responding when launched whilst LockThis is activated. With their popularity it limits severely the usefulness of this program. As my browser (Firefox 3.6.4) is the only thing I could see me ever really wanting to lock this , unfortunately, is not for me.

    • Abhijeet

      Roger, we have tested it and it works on all the versions of Firefox. It does say that it is not able to lock, but it works. Keep in mind that it only locks your session in that program. That means, if you lock Firefox using this tool, it will lock the set of tabs and browser windows you’ve got opened. However, a new browser session can still be initiated. But still, your data will stay safe.

      • roger

        Abhijeet, I did actually try it before I posted and it did not lock Firefox, but, having read your reply, I re-downloaded it and tried it with the 5 programs I have running at the moment. It did lock “utorrent”, “FormatFactory” and “explorer”, however it did not lock either “Firefox3.6.4″ or “Everything”.
        Had it not locked any I would figure I was doing something wrong, but to lock 3 out of 5 implies either a problem with the program, or an idiosyncratic reaction to my set-up.

        • Abhijeet

          Hmm, kinda strange, because it works the way I said on my computer. I am using Firefox 3.6.3 though.

          • roger

            In which case it is almost certainly an idiosyncratic reaction. I am constantly downloading, trying out and, in most cases, discarding freewares, so it is hardly surprising if some programs refuse to play nice with the convoluted conglomeration that is my computer. Of course this will not stop me from continuing to test it to destruction in pursuit that state of perfection that is, almost certainly, only one or two more, new and exciting, programs away…..
            all the best, roger.

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