Switching users in Vista / screensaver

Pawel Krakowiak

I wonder if anyone else is having this issue. I lock my account and then another user comes in and switches to his account, then logs out. I login back to my account, but Windows immediately starts the screensaver (I have been away from my account for like 15mins) and I need to log in again, so I log in twice in a row because of this... :| It's Vista Ultimate and I have the screensaver set to display the logon screen on resume.

benjymous

It's not new to Vista - this used to happen for me on XP

Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit! Buzzwords!

Rajesh R Subramanian

Actually, I don't see an issue. Windows is behaving the way you've asked it to behave. The fast user switching works something like this: 1. The logon screen appears, you enter your login credentials. If Winlogon authenticates you, it then consults with Gina and gets back your logon profile information and proceeds to step 2. 2. If this particular user is already logged on (this check happens if fast user switching is enabled), then the user is taken to his desktop, "as he left it (the screen saver was running)". 3. If not, Winlogon creates a new desktop for you (loading all your user preferences). In your case, after step 2, you are taken back to your existing desktop. But the screen saver is running there, and you want to break off the screen saver. You've told Windows to authenticate the user when there is an attempt to exit out of the screen saver and it is just doing that! You may probably have to disable the option which would show the logon screen on resuming from screen saver. Or just logoff completely every time (which is not a very good idea). Vista is innocent here. Invalid rant. ;P

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal - Friedrich Nietzsche .·´¯`·->Rajesh<-·´¯`·. [Microsoft MVP - Visual C++]

Dalek Dave

Or keep others from using your machine. Nicht Fingergerpoken!

------------------------------------ Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay. - Charles Dickens

DaveyM69

Hmmm, just an idea - could you write something that sends Win+L, then sends out a safe keypress to the system every 30 secs or so to stop the screensaver. It could maybe disable itself when mousemove is detected on your desktop so the screensaver is automatically enabled again when you unlock? There's probably a better way or a registry tweak but if not it may be worth doing.

Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Visual Basic is not used by normal people so we're not covering it here. (Uncyclopedia)

Pawel Krakowiak

Thanks for the thorough explanation, Rajesh! Good to know. :) ...But I still don't like how it behaves! I was thinking that the screensaver is run per computer, not per user account (so I'm thinking of the screen in screensaver as the physical screen I have here, not a virtual thing).

Pawel Krakowiak

DaveyM69 wrote:

Hmmm, just an idea - could you write something that sends Win+L, then sends out a safe keypress to the system every 30 secs or so to stop the screensaver. It could maybe disable itself when mousemove is detected on your desktop so the screensaver is automatically enabled again when you unlock?

Too much work. :) I'd rather login twice.

DaveyM69 wrote:

There's probably a better way or a registry tweak but if not it may be worth doing.

Then writing a custom application is worth more? :P

Rajesh R Subramanian

Pawel Krakowiak wrote:

Thanks for the thorough explanation, Rajesh! Good to know. Smile

My pleasure. :)

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal - Friedrich Nietzsche .·´¯`·->Rajesh<-·´¯`·. [Microsoft MVP - Visual C++]

DaveyM69

Don't know if this will work under vista - it does on XP pro 32 bit. C# WinForms app, removed Form1 (not used) and put this in Program.cs

//Program.cs
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using Microsoft.Win32;
namespace NoSaverLock
{
static class Program
{
private const uint SPI_GETSCREENSAVEACTIVE = 0x0010;
private const uint SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE = 0x0011;
private static bool keepRunning = true;
private static bool screenSaverOn;
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
SystemEvents.SessionEnding += new SessionEndingEventHandler(SystemEvents_SessionEnding);
SystemEvents.SessionSwitch += new SessionSwitchEventHandler(SystemEvents_SessionSwitch);
bool tmpBool = false;
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETSCREENSAVEACTIVE, 0, ref screenSaverOn, 0);
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE, 0, ref tmpBool, 0);
LockWorkStation();
while (keepRunning)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE, Convert.ToUInt32(screenSaverOn), ref tmpBool, 0);
SystemEvents.SessionEnding -= SystemEvents_SessionEnding;
SystemEvents.SessionSwitch -= SystemEvents_SessionSwitch;
}
static void SystemEvents_SessionSwitch(object sender, SessionSwitchEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Reason == SessionSwitchReason.SessionUnlock)
keepRunning = false;
}
static void SystemEvents_SessionEnding(object sender, SessionEndingEventArgs e)
{
keepRunning = false;
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern void LockWorkStation();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern bool SystemParametersInfo(
uint uAction, uint uParam, ref bool lpvParam, uint fuWinIni);
}
}

Is there a 'no programming answers in the lounge' rule? If so - sorry!

Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Visual Basic is not used by normal people so we're not covering it here. (Uncyclopedia)

modif