Suppose you are in the middle of something personal on the Internet (like chatting with your sweetheart) and suddenly you have to attend to some other business for a moment, would you leave the browser window open? I am sure you won’t. Nobody wants to make an exhibition of their private life. But you do not want to close the browser window either – it would be just too rude. So here is the solution – you can lock the browser window using a password. Yes, if you are a Mozilla Firefox user, then you can use the Master Password + extension to lock any window with a master password. The browser windows can be unlocked only after you supply the correct password.
You can get the Master Password + extension from the Mozilla add-ons repository. The extension requires you to restart your web browser. After you have installed the extension and browser has restarted, you would notice a lock icon in the Firefox location bar. You right-click on it and select Set master password to set your master password.
The window that opens up has options not only for setting up a master password, but also for various other features that the Master Password + extension comes with. You can choose to auto-logout after some time, lock the windows automatically after a time duration, prompt or the password at Firefox startup (so that only you can use Firefox), choose the hotkeys and so on.
Once you have set the master password. You can right-click on the lock icon in the location bar and choose to lock one or all the windows. It would ask for the master password before locking the windows. If you are already logged in using the master password, then you can choose to lock all the windows and logout.
When the Firefox window is locked, it displays nothing – no menubar, no toolbar, no website – just nothing. The only thing you can do is click anywhere on the the locked Firefox window to make the password prompt appear. You can enter the master password and unlock the browser window.
As expected, the extension takes over the regular master password feature of Firefox. So if you want to view the saved passwords, save, remove or edit them, the Master Password + prompt shows up instead of the regular master password prompt.
Conclusion: The Master Password+ enhances the regular master password feature of Firefox. It allows you to lock one or more Firefox browser windows through a hotkey. There are also advanced features to ask for master password at browser startup, auto-lock the windows and more.
You can download Master Password + extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/.
Awesome, thanks for this! I use to do the automatic lock computer after idle, but this is more preferable.