Screen Saver Timeout really irritating
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Now that I am working at home all the time, why do I have a screen saver lock on my work PC. Is my cat going to compromise the systems ? I saw where someone had put a mouse in a box with a motor to keep the screen saver from engaging -- seems too hard. I also saw an app for the iPhone called Mouse Mover. Does anyone know if this works ? I can't plug an iPhone into a work computer, but Keyboards and Mice are OK.
We had a group policy set on our pc as well but they have relaxed that rule since everyone working from home. To get round the group policy when we were in the office years ago I wrote my own app that run on a timer few minutes to do something. Worked well on the old windows version but not very well on Win10 and I have not bothered to investigate further. A small technical challenge for you...
A Fine is a Tax for doing something wrong A Tax is a Fine for doing something good.
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There are also USB Mouse Jiggler - Mouse Mover Prevents Screen-Saver: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics[^] - that's an expensive one, you can pay half that or less on FleaBay.
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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May not be possible on a work PC.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Well, I have no experience in this area, but i know Dilbert and his colleagues have experienced this: Dilbert Comic Strip on 2005-08-02 | Dilbert by Scott Adams[^]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaveActive"="0"
"ScreenSaverIsSecure"="0"
"ScreenSaveTimeOut"="1000000000"
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\scrnsave.scr" -
May not be possible on a work PC.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
"Should not". There's a risc on leaving your desk there, which don't exist at home. I know, I once installed an app that opens the CD-tray when given the command over TCP, and it drove a collegue insane. Whenever he was busy, concentrated, the CD-tray would open without warning. A co-worker with more malicious intent might have installed a keylogger. So, it's a good thing there are those limitations on the screensaver.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Well, I have no experience in this area, but i know Dilbert and his colleagues have experienced this: Dilbert Comic Strip on 2005-08-02 | Dilbert by Scott Adams[^]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaveActive"="0"
"ScreenSaverIsSecure"="0"
"ScreenSaveTimeOut"="1000000000"
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\scrnsave.scr"If you circumvent the limitations set by the sysadmin, you could be held liable for any damages. Not worth the risc; you get paid to enter your password.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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If you circumvent the limitations set by the sysadmin, you could be held liable for any damages. Not worth the risc; you get paid to enter your password.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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If you circumvent the limitations set by the sysadmin, you could be held liable for any damages. Not worth the risc; you get paid to enter your password.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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If you have power point installed, an empty presentation should do the trick.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I don't know... I use the ppt at work and is good for me. Empty document in desktop, double click, F5, Win+D, start normal work.
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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You are welcome
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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This does seem to work. Very nice. I just have to alt-tab away and then things are normal. Thanks!
I use Win+D to minimize to tray, so it doesn't stay in background
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I've been put out to pasture... Dilbert Comic Strip on 2008-12-24 | Dilbert by Scott Adams[^] :laugh:
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"Should not". There's a risc on leaving your desk there, which don't exist at home. I know, I once installed an app that opens the CD-tray when given the command over TCP, and it drove a collegue insane. Whenever he was busy, concentrated, the CD-tray would open without warning. A co-worker with more malicious intent might have installed a keylogger. So, it's a good thing there are those limitations on the screensaver.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
My best experience of unauthorised access was when I had to call tech support to fix something (no idea what it was, now), the guy logged into my laptop, fiddled around a bit, then went off to get something. While he was gone, I quickly made myself a device administrator. Happy ending: I never had to call tech support again.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Now that I am working at home all the time, why do I have a screen saver lock on my work PC. Is my cat going to compromise the systems ? I saw where someone had put a mouse in a box with a motor to keep the screen saver from engaging -- seems too hard. I also saw an app for the iPhone called Mouse Mover. Does anyone know if this works ? I can't plug an iPhone into a work computer, but Keyboards and Mice are OK.
Can't you just turn it off? Anyway, the real reason people use screen savers is not because of security issues, but because the image may burn into your screen, (once) true story ;p
Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
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Can't you just turn it off? Anyway, the real reason people use screen savers is not because of security issues, but because the image may burn into your screen, (once) true story ;p
Best, Sander sanderrossel.com Migrating Applications to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly
Burn-in was a problem with CRTs, and to some degree with plasma. Those few cases I have seen reported with plasma was done deliberately, cranking up the brightness and contrast to maximum and leave a static picture on the screen for two weeks. With LCD, it is practically non-exisistent - and I wish someone could give a good explanation why it would at all be possible. Yet, some people do insist that there is a slight bur-in effect even on LCDs. But the light source knows nothing about the pattern displayed; it provides an even, white background light. The LCDs are "light valves" letting more or less of the white light through. I just cannot understand how these valves can have a memory of how much light they have let through the last two weeks (or years) and sort of "got stuck" in exactly that position, that degree of opening. A valve does not produce any light itself (like plasma or phosphorus; it cannot "burn out" the same way. Certainly you can see materials fade from long time exposure to light, but that cannot be the case with LCD burn-in: They are all exposed to the same intensity white backlight, independent of how much the valve is opened.
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Burn-in was a problem with CRTs, and to some degree with plasma. Those few cases I have seen reported with plasma was done deliberately, cranking up the brightness and contrast to maximum and leave a static picture on the screen for two weeks. With LCD, it is practically non-exisistent - and I wish someone could give a good explanation why it would at all be possible. Yet, some people do insist that there is a slight bur-in effect even on LCDs. But the light source knows nothing about the pattern displayed; it provides an even, white background light. The LCDs are "light valves" letting more or less of the white light through. I just cannot understand how these valves can have a memory of how much light they have let through the last two weeks (or years) and sort of "got stuck" in exactly that position, that degree of opening. A valve does not produce any light itself (like plasma or phosphorus; it cannot "burn out" the same way. Certainly you can see materials fade from long time exposure to light, but that cannot be the case with LCD burn-in: They are all exposed to the same intensity white backlight, independent of how much the valve is opened.
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Now that I am working at home all the time, why do I have a screen saver lock on my work PC. Is my cat going to compromise the systems ? I saw where someone had put a mouse in a box with a motor to keep the screen saver from engaging -- seems too hard. I also saw an app for the iPhone called Mouse Mover. Does anyone know if this works ? I can't plug an iPhone into a work computer, but Keyboards and Mice are OK.
We can't disable ours on our work PCs and it's set to a ridiculously low threshold. Started writing my own and then found TCaffeine, which sends a keystroke at a given interval. Works like a charm.
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We get burn in on LCD screens here at work. But they display the same image 99.5% of the time and run 24/7. It's more like ghosting. I think they call it image persistence.
I sure would like some LCD expert to explain how that happens! Anyway, as you point out: Burn-in happens (even on CRTs and plasmas) only after very long exposure to a 100% stable picture. It certainly is no reason for using a screen saver. At my workplace, we have a similar annoyance, but not from fear of burn-in: For "security reasons", the screen is locked after ten minutes of no keyboard/mouse activity, so we have to login again. About a dozen tools require login specific to that tool (but they all use the same LDAP for username/password), and have timeouts of 20 minutes. So even if you are continously working in one of the tools, editing a report, say, when you want to pick up something from another tool for your report, you must respecify you user name and password. During a normal working day, I log in to one tool or another at least a few dozen times. I think of it as whenever I move from one window to another, it requires a login. Almost all the tools have "remember me" option, which has been disabled by IT management. The IT security guys are really competent; they know well how to protect the internal network and servers, and they keep tight control over who has which permissions. But as with lots of experts: When all you've got is a hammer, the whole world becomes a nail. It seems like any tightening of security is an improvement. One side is the annoyance (such as the requirement to change your password every x weeks - I don't know of any colleague who makes any other change than incrementing the serial number appended to a fixed password), but when people come to my desk for help with something, the invariably have at least two or three chances to see me typing my password. So maybe the security isn't that much higher after all.
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Now that I am working at home all the time, why do I have a screen saver lock on my work PC. Is my cat going to compromise the systems ? I saw where someone had put a mouse in a box with a motor to keep the screen saver from engaging -- seems too hard. I also saw an app for the iPhone called Mouse Mover. Does anyone know if this works ? I can't plug an iPhone into a work computer, but Keyboards and Mice are OK.
I've used this simple method for close to 20 years via whatever scripting language was hot at the time. Here is today's version in Powershell:
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Windows.Forms")
while ($true)
{
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::SendWait("{NUMLOCK}{NUMLOCK}")
Start-Sleep -Seconds 240
}Does nothing more than pop your NumLock key twice so fast you could be typing the next great American novel and you won't even notice. The only negative drawback is it can drain a wireless keyboards battery a little more quickly, but playing with the sleep delay (set it to just below your screensaver timeout) will minimize it.
