Panic Key program for your work pc?

squale · Mar 24, 2004

I was looking for a little utility that runs in the background where if you are at work or anyplace on yoru computer and somebody walks by or over to your pc, you can hit a button on the keyboard or something and your screen will automatically go back to a default window you set... (such as your email program mazimized) or a certain webpage or something...

is there such a utiltiy? anybody know of a good one if so that uses very little system resources but works INSTANTLY when a key is pressed?

David · Mar 24, 2004

This sounds a little suspect....but I will reply anyway

What about something like multiple desktops? Or having a "Homepage" or "Email" button on your keyboard?

squale · Mar 24, 2004

that looks a little suspect for me to be hitting the email button on the keyboard which sits in the top middle of the keyboard everytime somebody walks by. Really what I want to do is have the big "Enter" key on the numberpad all the way to the bottom right of my keyboard serve as the panic key, so when I hit that key once, it will restore my desktop back to full screen email or something very QUICKLY. This will look a lot less suspicious for me I think...

P.S.-> I need this because I do personal web design work while at work when I am not busy, and the boses don't like that, so I don't want them seeing it up on my screen when they walk by..

but right now, manually clicking around just makes it look suspicious since I primarily keep my hands on my keyboard anyhow.. so that's why I wanted a hotkey on the keyboard to do this..

nahmus · Mar 25, 2004

there used to be a program that ran in the background in the win98 days that would bring up a fake spreadsheet that you could edit. (i used to play doom at lunch at work

)

I'll take a look to see if i have it but i doubt that it will work in todays OS'es

aftermath · Mar 26, 2004

http://www.historykill.info/boss-key.htm
might work?

bluediamond · Mar 26, 2004

Alt-Tab

juliendogg · Mar 27, 2004

lol, omg this thread is cracking me up.

.
Sorry i have no tips, i will think on it. but i jus had to say.. lol

J.

mbentley · Mar 27, 2004

i am not encouraging what you are doing as you very well could get fired for doing it, but here is what i would do:

make the taskbar setup so it will automatically hide itself when your mouse isn't over it. then when somebody comes by just hit the windows key + d. that will take you to your desktop. that is probably the easiest solution that doesn't require software that is 3rd party. this functionality is already built into windows...

Permanoob · Mar 28, 2004

I've been in his position before.. using the windows-d (windows-m also does the same thing) shortcut would be suspicious as well. What I used to do is just make sure you're friends with your alt-tab/taskbar auto-hide combo. If you've got your windows sequenced right then you just have one quick alt-tab (which is faster than moving your hand to the numpad Enter key) and voila you have your email up and the boss can't even see what's in your taskbar.

mrgreenjeans · Mar 28, 2004

That'll work unless there's a spyware program monitoring your computer. Very likely scenario in a large corp. Don't think you're the first to try skating through the work day.

mbentley · Mar 28, 2004

heh i will have to ask macky what he does... he is always on mirc at work

Gimps · Mar 28, 2004

squale said:
P.S.-> I need this because I do personal web design work while at work when I am not busy, and the boses don't like that, so I don't want them seeing it up on my screen when they walk by..

Imagine that, your boss doesn't like you stealing money from the company.

tom10167 · Mar 28, 2004

ALT+TAB works fantastic. I used to do the shortcut to desktop trick, but then my teacher would always ask why I'm not doing ANYTHING. ALT TAB, and then just hide the taskbar. I've never heard of businesses running spyware programs to monitor their employees. Sounds counterproductive, amongst other things.

Permanoob · Mar 28, 2004

This business had that kind of software.. only IT could access it though they weren't smart enough to disallow access to Task Manager though and you just had to end task on the monitoring prog.

Imagine that, your boss doesn't like you stealing money from the company

You must be a boss or someone who REALLY hates slackers to think of what he's doing in that light. He's most likely got some tech support job that's not paying a whole lot and actually needs to do this sort of thing to move along in life.

He's A-OK in my book.. as I said before I've been there.

Panic Key program for your work pc?

squale

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squale

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bluediamond

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mbentley

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