BlueLife KeyFreeze is a freeware Windows tool which can selectively lock your mouse and/ or keyboard, without hiding the screen.

This is ideal if you’re leaving your toddler to watch a cartoon on your laptop, for example– even if they decide to bash the keyboard or click the mouse, it won’t do any harm.

Unzipping the download gets you two executables, 32 and 64-bit, and a ReadMe.txt with instructions.

Launch the program and you’ll see a five second countdown. Once this is complete you’ll still be able to see and move the mouse, but clicks no longer work, and keypresses have no effect either.

You need to be careful here, because there’s no obvious way to unlock the system. You’ll have to remember that Ctrl+Alt+Del restores normal operations, while Ctrl+Alt+F toggles locking off and on again.

There are some useful options and settings available

That’s a good start, and there are plenty of options and settings to make it even better.

Right-click the KeyFreeze system tray icon and you’ll find options to lock just the keyboard, or just the mouse.

It’s possible to have the program lock your system automatically, whenever it’s been idle for a fixed period of time.

If the Ctrl+Alt+F hotkey conflicts with something else, you’re able to customise it as required.

You can also disable the Ctrl+Alt+Del “unlock” function, which makes it less likely that others will find it by accident. (KeyFreeze isn’t intended to be a serious security tool, but if you’re concerned about snoopers as well as toddlers then this will offer a little more protection.)

BlueLife KeyFreeze is a freeware application for Windows XP and later.