I’m running Windows Vista on both my computers, and I was wondering if the “lock computer” thing will interrupt the rendering process. I’m talking about the button that takes you to the login screen but doesn’t switch users.
I just don’t like having my computer open for anybody to jump on it when I’m not around (hence, can I lock it while it’s rendering?)
Try and see?
Just take your mouse and keyboard with you.
You will be fine. When you lock the computer, all tasks that you were running will continue. You may want to check you power settings to make sure that sleep and hibernate are disabled. As far as I know, blender won’t prevent your computer from going to sleep.
take the monitor cable, and no one can use it 
It’s a laptop.
Thanks Trevin. I have the screen saver disabled.
You have to disable the login screen , screensaver .
Here is how :
if you are in vista or windows 7 it is slightly different :
you can start blender rendering from the command-line too . On some systems it will be slightly faster. It does not load the GUI, it just renders in the background.
Another option, is to get a big stick, and hide in the closet. as soon as you hear the keyboard sneak out, and whack the sh!t out of whoever is invading your system. You usually only have to do this once per coworker. They seem to mind their business after that.
hopefully your’e rendering to frames and not avi one stuff up and all your hard work is gone.