![Why did old PCs have key locks? [LGR Retrospective]](https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/y0zZqHOZq7M/maxresdefault.jpg)
Why did old PCs have key locks? [LGR Retrospective]
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
MysticJhn
I remember our family's first home computer (from the early to mid 1990s) had one of those round keylocks, but I never really thought anything of it. We didn't have a key for it since our computer was one being thrown out by the business my mother worked for at the time, so it was just easily assumed it was there to prevent people from stealing parts from the inside. Considering we took home the computer and it was unlocked when we got it, either the company didn't care when they decided to replace it or it was never locked in the first place.
The casualness of a business discarding an old PC with no security measures is almost laughable these days, but those days few households had internet (early versions of AOL) and even less people knew anything about using computers in general, so nobody really considered security much.
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I remember our family's first home computer (from the early to mid 1990s) had one of those round keylocks, but I never really thought anything of it. We didn't have a key for it since our computer was one being thrown out by the business my mother worked for at the time, so it was just easily assumed it was there to prevent people from stealing parts from the inside. Considering we took home the computer and it was unlocked when we got it, either the company didn't care when they decided to replace it or it was never locked in the first place.
The casualness of a business discarding an old PC with no security measures is almost laughable these days, but those days few households had internet (early versions of AOL) and even less people knew anything about using computers in general, so nobody really considered security much.
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Martin
Going back far enough, mainframes didn-t have a key because they were behind locked doors and you would need a large truck and a moving crew to steal them. But all the mini-computers, starting with PDP-8 to 11, Data-General Nova and Eclipse, and all the others (that I ever saw) all came with key locks because they were generally in a lab somewhere, and had a lock for power and key input. If you have a computer running an experiment that runs for months, you don-t want someone accidently pushing the reset button or switching it off! I-m guessing that it was with this in mind that the locks were carried over to the micro/home/personal-computers.
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Going back far enough, mainframes didn-t have a key because they were behind locked doors and you would need a large truck and a moving crew to steal them. But all the mini-computers, starting with PDP-8 to 11, Data-General Nova and Eclipse, and all the others (that I ever saw) all came with key locks because they were generally in a lab somewhere, and had a lock for power and key input. If you have a computer running an experiment that runs for months, you don-t want someone accidently pushing the reset button or switching it off! I-m guessing that it was with this in mind that the locks were carried over to the micro/home/personal-computers.
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UK
I have never seen a keylock that stops the case from being opened back in the day. Maybe it was more a USA thing? Daft having a keylock that does not lock the case as you can open case remove cable from keylock. or short it.
Also it never stopped you from hitting reset or power off.
I love that power on off lock. Never saw that in the UK. Do not see point of it as you can just unplug it from socket end or switch off at the socket.
Never once in many years of IT (from installing software / hardware/ support to developing it) did I EVER see anyone actually using the keylock other than just playing with it when its a new toy.
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I have never seen a keylock that stops the case from being opened back in the day. Maybe it was more a USA thing? Daft having a keylock that does not lock the case as you can open case remove cable from keylock. or short it.
Also it never stopped you from hitting reset or power off.
I love that power on off lock. Never saw that in the UK. Do not see point of it as you can just unplug it from socket end or switch off at the socket.
Never once in many years of IT (from installing software / hardware/ support to developing it) did I EVER see anyone actually using the keylock other than just playing with it when its a new toy.
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Baughbe
Ah yes, my IBM 286 had that lock. My brother gave it to me when he upgraded. After using the lock once just to see if it actually did anything. never used it again. The turbo switch never seemed to do much of anything either. However my bother had installed a toggle switch in the back that acted as a reverse turbo. It's slowed down the computer so you could play older games that the 286 was too fast for. My brother did a lot of programming stuff and could get a computer to work to it's limit. That 286 ran Windows (version 3. 11. Took 11 minutes to boot up but it did run it.
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Ah yes, my IBM 286 had that lock. My brother gave it to me when he upgraded. After using the lock once just to see if it actually did anything. never used it again. The turbo switch never seemed to do much of anything either. However my bother had installed a toggle switch in the back that acted as a reverse turbo. It's slowed down the computer so you could play older games that the 286 was too fast for. My brother did a lot of programming stuff and could get a computer to work to it's limit. That 286 ran Windows (version 3. 11. Took 11 minutes to boot up but it did run it.
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Brandon
Our old 486 has this keylock feature to lock the keyboard input. I remember one time another family we were close with made a trip to where we lived and visited and my dad went out to town with the other kids' dad and asked their teenage kids not to touch his computer. He locked the keyboard anyway and when my dad returned, sure enough one of the kids tried using his computer and remarked on how he had locked it. To this day I can't believe the gall that kid had to be told by another adult not to touch his computer and then attempting it anyway.
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Our old 486 has this keylock feature to lock the keyboard input. I remember one time another family we were close with made a trip to where we lived and visited and my dad went out to town with the other kids' dad and asked their teenage kids not to touch his computer. He locked the keyboard anyway and when my dad returned, sure enough one of the kids tried using his computer and remarked on how he had locked it. To this day I can't believe the gall that kid had to be told by another adult not to touch his computer and then attempting it anyway.
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MPG187
Some of my Desktops allow me to lock the case, but these are business models.
It's so noone can open the case, pull the drive, and put it as a secondary drive on their PC to access data or install an OS on a system where they can access the BIOS, and install an OS where they have admin access to a drive they can put back into the PC, effectively giving them full access to the machine as if it was theirs instead of being stolen from me.
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Some of my Desktops allow me to lock the case, but these are business models.
It's so noone can open the case, pull the drive, and put it as a secondary drive on their PC to access data or install an OS on a system where they can access the BIOS, and install an OS where they have admin access to a drive they can put back into the PC, effectively giving them full access to the machine as if it was theirs instead of being stolen from me.
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fanjoy
The lock was also used to stop people stealing high value chips, ram etc. Best one I ever seen was an old DEC PC and it had a rod going from the front button to the back of the power supply and someone had fitted a ignition barl to the PC on the side. I asked the guy why he had fitted an Ignition barl to it. He said he was fed up with the worker on day shift moving his icons around. Genius it was fitted perfect.
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The lock was also used to stop people stealing high value chips, ram etc. Best one I ever seen was an old DEC PC and it had a rod going from the front button to the back of the power supply and someone had fitted a ignition barl to the PC on the side. I asked the guy why he had fitted an Ignition barl to it. He said he was fed up with the worker on day shift moving his icons around. Genius it was fitted perfect.
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LegoTekFan486
My case has two 5. 25 bays, with one of them having a blank plate covering it. I might drill a hole in the blank plate (which can of course be replaced: Corsair sells replacement parts for their cases) and wire up a key switch in series with the power button. Then if the key is turned off, it doesn't allow the computer to be turned on / off.
Just a gimmick, I don't have much actual use for that, lol
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My case has two 5. 25 bays, with one of them having a blank plate covering it. I might drill a hole in the blank plate (which can of course be replaced: Corsair sells replacement parts for their cases) and wire up a key switch in series with the power button. Then if the key is turned off, it doesn't allow the computer to be turned on / off.
Just a gimmick, I don't have much actual use for that, lol
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David
I remember my dad got one of these for our home. He of course wanted to restrict our play time to only a few hours, for our own good, so he locked it often. Many years later, we told dad that it had been futile. I simply cut the back end of a pen in the right spot. The resulting hole fit perfectly the shape of the lock, so that we could unlock it at our leisure and relock it before dad came back from work.
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I remember my dad got one of these for our home. He of course wanted to restrict our play time to only a few hours, for our own good, so he locked it often. Many years later, we told dad that it had been futile. I simply cut the back end of a pen in the right spot. The resulting hole fit perfectly the shape of the lock, so that we could unlock it at our leisure and relock it before dad came back from work.
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CHRISMENENDEZ
I had a HP Vectra 500 from 1996 and it still had a key lock. It prevented the case from being opened, and the BIOS from saving configuration changes. The case also had some apparatus inside that when engaged prevented the CPU from being moved from the table, so if you locked the case, it effectively prevented CPU theft unless the burglar took the whole table or destroyed the case.
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I had a HP Vectra 500 from 1996 and it still had a key lock. It prevented the case from being opened, and the BIOS from saving configuration changes. The case also had some apparatus inside that when engaged prevented the CPU from being moved from the table, so if you locked the case, it effectively prevented CPU theft unless the burglar took the whole table or destroyed the case.
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