Locking screen vs blanking screen

[davidshq]

Hi All,

I can open the main window of NoMachine on my host machine and do the following:

1. Click on Settings
2. Click on Security
3. Blank the physical screen when somebody connects

I tried that but I’m not a huge fan. Instead I’d like to lock the screen when someone (aka me) connects. But the only setting I see related to this is on the same Security screen where it says it can lock the screen when someone disconnects (which is great, but not what I’m looking for).

Is there a way for me to have the screen lock when I remotely connect rather than blanking?

*I don’t like the blanking screen because it seems I can’t regain access from the local system easily. For example, if I’ve remoted into the system using NoMachine and blanked the screen and then (without disconnecting) wander over to the host system in another room and attempted to access it, I can’t.

Thanks!

[Britgirl]

Hi, what OS are you connecting to?

[davidshq]

I’m using a Windows system to connect to an Ubuntu 22.04 system. Thanks!

[Britgirl]

Remember that screen-blanking is a privacy feature, and an important one that does its job well. It’s there to stop users in the vicinity of the computer seeing sensitive information that the remote user (presumably the session owner) doesn’t want to show.  So to change how it currently works needs careful thought since we don’t want to undermine its function. You mentioned showing a lockscreen of some sort in place of a blank screen, is there another remote desktop product that does it like that?

[davidshq]

RDP is the main one I’ve used in the past. I think some others – maybe [removed], [removed], and [removed] offer this functionality as well.

[Britgirl]

Connecting via RDP is a bit different because it connects you to a virtual Windows display, not the physical display, so on the local machine you can see the Login screen. Then if you were to move to the room where that machine is and log in locally, your connection would be disconnected. I think that’s how the Pro/Enterprise version of Windows 10 works.

The other products’ names you mentioned have been removed, but they’ve been noted 😉 We’ve studied a number of products including those you indicated, though I’m not sure whether these actually show a lockscreen/login screen instead of a blank screen.

For Linux servers, an option could be to use NoMachine Workstation from the Terminal Server range; you don’t have to use the screen blanking option at all because you could run a virtual Linux desktop and nothing about your remote session would be visible. I’m not sure whether this fits your use case of walking between rooms and being able to access the server computer physically whilst you have a NoMachine session open.

[Author]

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