Tip of the day: Log out in a hurry

Think of this as the 21st Century equivalent of the “boss key.” When you hear footsteps and you want to clear the contents of the screen right now, hold down the Windows logo key and tap L. In Windows XP, that shortcut takes you to the logon screen if you have Fast User Switching enabled. If you log on to a Windows domain server on a corporate network, or if you’ve disabled Fast User Switching, or if you’re using Windows 2000, the Windows logo+L shortcut locks the computer, displaying a logon dialog box that doesn’t go away until you enter your password.