On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:49:25 -0500, John Griffin <jwegriffin at mac.com> wrote: > I don't know if this fits into the picture, but if you open System > Preferences/Security you will see a check box that lets you automatically > log out after a set number of minutes of inactivity (the default value is > 60). Make sure this is unchecked if you want to be sure the system doesn't > log out on you without your permission. John: Thanks for the follow-up . . . but my security settings are NOT set to automatically log out. My short-term fix has been to "lock" the screen using the feature in keychains (applications/utilities/keychain access: View:Show keychain status in toolbar) and this enables me to lock the screen using the user password. A temporary fix until I can reformat and reload (The Windoze way out). Regards, Bill