Wayne,
using your idea I came upwith this:
I have a timer in the startup form that checks the value of:
col() + mcol() + mrow() + lastkey()
every 5 seconds. If it has changed I store it in a custom form property to check against next time. If no change for nn seconds then I do the password form. A supervisor can set the nn time. I added the col() and lastkey() becuse the entire program is designed to be used without the mouse. (The mouse does work normally however.)

Thanks a lot for your great idea,
John.

>
>If it is complete system inactivity, you can use the timer to check mcol() and mrow(). If you have to see if your application is idle, check something like _screen.activeform.name or some other property and compare the values to what they were the last time your timer fired.