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Smart Disk

Desktop Lock supports smart disks to unlock the system automatically. Smart disks can be created to unlock a locked system, instead of pressing the unlock hotkey or providing the unlock password.

Smart disks work like smart cards, however, they are not smart cards. You do not need a special device to create them. You can use Desktop Lock to create them directly. Those smart disks are actually any kind of external disk (USB flash disks, USB hard disks, SD cards etc.) with a special data file. Furthermore, a smart disk remains fully functional as a standard external drive for storing personal data.

A smart disk can be configured to unlock the system directly when it's inserted into a locked computer; it can also be configured to re-lock the system automatically if the disk is removed from a recently unlocked system. It is also possible to only pop up the unlock password window when a smart disk is inserted, instead of unlocking the system directly.

To create a smart disk, click on the top-right of the main window and select Smart Disk, or click Configure in the main window and then click Smart Disk in the Advanced page. Both navigation paths lead to the same interface.

Smart disks work based on the admin password. Consequently, if the Desktop Lock admin password is changed after a smart disk has been created, that smart disk will stop working.

Choose what this smart disk can do

Ask for unlock password

When this smart disk is inserted into a locked system, Desktop Lock will popup the password window to ask for unlock password. This process bypasses the need to enter the correct unlock hotkey. Naturally, if the current configuration lacks an unlock password, the system will unlock immediately.

Unlock system directly

When this smart disk is inserted into a locked system, Desktop Lock will unlock the system directly, bypassing both the unlock hotkey and password requirements.

Choose an external disk

Insert an external disk into your computer, then select it from this dropdown box to created it to be a smart disk.

Additional options

Relock the system when this smart disk is removed

If you enable this option when creating the smart disk, the created smart disk will be able to automatically re-lock the system if it was used to unlock the system and then is removed from the computer.

Prevent the duplication of this smart disk

if you enable this option when creating the smart disk, the created smart disk will include an anti-copy feature: users will be unable to duplicate the smart disk by simply copying the special file to other external disks.

Limit the use of this smart disk to the current system

Smart disks for Desktop Lock operate based on the admin password. If you have 2 computers with Desktop Lock installed using the same admin password, the smart disk created on one computer can, by default, be used on both 2 computers to unlock the system.

If you prefer that the smart disk does not unlock all systems sharing the same admin password, you may enable this option. A smart disk created with this option enabled can only be used on the computer where it was originally created.