Mac OS X Lion brings a nice new feature to login and lock screens that allow you to display a message underneath the login panel. This is visible to everyone and it makes for a great place to put either a generic personalization or better yet, a lost & found message.
How to Add a Login & Lock Screen Message to OS X Lion
Note that for the lock screen message to be displayed you also must have the ‘Require password’ feature turned on in the Security panel, then:
- Open up System Preferences and click on the “Security & Privacy” icon
- Select the “General” tab and then click the little lock icon in the lower left corner of the window, enter the admin password when asked
- Check the button next to “Show a message when the screen is locked” and type your login and lock screen message in the box below
- Click the lock icon again to set the changes and close out System Preferences
If you want to confirm the change, activate a screen saver with a sleep corner or lock your Mac screen, just be sure that you require a password or you won’t see your message. You can see what this looks like in the screenshot above and the closeup image below:
Having a message on your lock screen is a great loss prevention and general anti-theft measure, since anyone who gets the Mac into their hands later will see the message and if they have a conscience, will hopefully call the number you set on the screen. This could also help if you ever accidentally misplaced a Mac laptop, and is a great addition to setting an “If Found” message as the iPhone lock screen wallpaper which was suggested by Apple a few years ago.
Thanks to OSXDaily.com
