Lock A Computer With A Bluetooth Device

BtProx is a free program for the Windows operating system that enables you to lock Windows workstations automatically using Bluetooth devices.

Locking the operating system is surely not the most secure way of making sure that unauthorized user cannot access the computer, but it is still better than leaving the computer system unlocked.

You can configure Windows to lock the computer automatically after a set amount of time, and since it is an automated process, it is very convenient.

Users who want to add a bit more of excitement to the process can use the program BtProx to link the computer to a Bluetooth device instead and use it for the locking and unlocking process.

The program will lock the PC when the Bluetooth device gets disconnected from the computer which is usually the case if it is initiated by the user, or if the user moves too far away from the PC if the Bluetooth device is a device that can be disconnected from the computer (like a smartphone).

BtProx

The software makes it comfortable to lock the computer. The standard locking of the system happens after a given time no matter where the user is. It would for instance lock the PC even if the user reading text but not active at the time. The Bluetooth technique ensures that the PC gets locked only if the user leaves the proximity of the PC.

It is on the other hand not as easy to setup as a third party software needs to be installed and configured for it to work. Another benefit of using the Bluetooth Proximity Lock Utility is that it can launch an application if the device gets connected or disconnected from the system. It can for instance be used to perform an automatic system cleanup, unmount an encrypted hard drive or run a system tool whenever the device status changes.

The time it takes to lock the PC after the device is disconnected can be configured in the program's options. The Open Source tool is available for the Windows operating system. Interested users can download both the binary and the source code at the Sourceforge project site.

Please note that the program requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5.

Update: BtProx has not been updated since 2012. While it should work fine on recent versions of Windows, it appears to have been abandoned by its author. This means basically that if you run into any issues using the program, that you won't receive support or can hope that a new version will be made available that fixes the issue.

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