Lock MBP and still output to secondary display?

[oYx]

I give presentations regularly, and I always lock (with password) my MBP if I need to leave the room for a quick break. However, I often need to leave the secondary display projected on the big screen. Is there a way to keep the secondary display showing even when locking access to the MBP?

 

[snaky69]

I give presentations regularly, and I always lock (with password) my MBP if I need to leave the room for a quick break. However, I often need to leave the secondary display projected on the big screen. Is there a way to keep the secondary display showing even when locking access to the MBP?

AFAIK no that is not possible, neither on a PC nor a Mac.

 

[ctyhntr]

Sounds like you're worried about someone with physical access to your computer while you're away. How about creating a locked down guest ID/PW account, and log in with that for your presentation. Change the file permissions to take away rights to this account in Applications directory, and other main directories.

 

[oYx]

That's a good idea, but keeping a separate account would be a little more troublesome than simply forgoing the projected screen for now. I'll look into an app that can disable keyboard and mouse input unless a password has been entered. Was hoping OSX got this covered already.

 

[Bill Gates]

It's really not a big deal to enable the built-in guest account. Just put the presentation in a shared folder and you should be able to do what you need without giving access to your data. You can even make the shared folder read-only.

 

[fobis]

You can set a hot corner to turn off/blank your displays and require a password for when your computer comes out of screen saver and sleep. I think that will do the trick.

EDIT: nevermind me. Forgot that you wanted to leave the secondary display on. Sorry.

 

[Eddyisgreat]

If Using Keynote:

To require a password to exit a slideshow:
In the Document pane of the Document Inspector, select the checkbox labeled “Require password to exit show.”
The required user name and password are those of the current user or the administrator for the computer on which the slideshow is playing.

 

[oYx]

It's really not a big deal to enable the built-in guest account. Just put the presentation in a shared folder and you should be able to do what you need without giving access to your data. You can even make the shared folder read-only.

My presentations tend to involve quite a bit of shuffling between showing a few professional applications which I use frequently, so making sure settings are updated across the accounts will be quite something. Also, I need to access my iTunes library occasionally (though I haven't looked into the possibility of sharing the library across accounts before).

Nonetheless, having the guest account doesn't protect the other confidential info (for my reference only) I will need to have opened during my presentations. I could close them during my breaks.. but not very ideal having to open them again.