Just wondering because I run many windowed apps or I usually go afk and don't want anyone to touch my laptop, was wondering if there was a quick way to goto that screen saver login screen "prompt for password" when you move the mouse after the screen saver comes on.

Usually when I'm watching a video or playing a game windowed the screen saver comes on and it annoys me and in some cases it shuts off my gfx card(using an integrated vga and I think it has to do with bios but that doesn't bother me) I usually have to turn off the screen saver when I watch videos or play games, which is a small hassale that I would like to avoid, and loading up the screen saver tab takes loading time that could be avoided.


basically was hoping there was a quick way to get the screen saver loaded using a key command or a desktop shortcut.
I looked it up and the only thing I could find was that if you went to /windows/system32 and shortcuted the .scr files you could start up the screen saver, but this method doesn't help because it only loads the screen saver and not the settings I put like "prompt for password" when the you return from afk... ?

Hello HyeVltg3!

Have you considered using the Ctrl-Alt-Del function and selecting lock? It wouldn't be your pretty screensaver, but it is the secured functionality of a locked and password protected computer.

I'm sorry, but that I guess I am assuming that your UserID is secured with a password. If it isn't, that's an easy change to make for security's sake.

...lol
I realize that, that is a simple method eh?
....but if it possible to turn on the xp screen saver(my preferred way) with a shortcut?
and yes my userID is secured by a password.

You could shorten the screensaver's "idle time" to a minute. That should kick the screensaver on anytime you leave the system idle for 60 seconds. Realize that this could be an annoyance though if you are at the system, but not typing or moving the mouse for 60 seconds or more at a time. The screensaver would kick in.

I'll quick check around and see if there are shortcut keys to activate it. I'm not aware of any but I don't recall ever looking....

EDIT: Got it! Wow AND it's easy.....

there is!! took less than a min on google!

1. Click the Start button, and then click Search.

2. In the Search Companion window, click All file types.

3. In the file name box, type *.scr

4. In the Look in box, choose Local Hard Drives (C or the drive where you have system files stored on your computer.

5. Click Search.

6. You will see a list of screensavers in the results. Pick a screensaver you want. You can preview it by double-clicking it.

7. Right click on the file, choose Send To, and then click Desktop (create shortcut).

To activate the screensaver, double-click the icon on your desktop

thanks for trying to search it, but if you read the bottom of my thread starting post you would've noticed that I've already discovered that method :P I'm now looking for something similar but with the password prompt on resume.

Apologies, I read that but misunderstood. Are you saying that this method IGNORES that you've set a password on your screensaver?

EDIT: I'm sorry, but I've just found the following information. It doesn't seem that what you desire is possible with the Windows screensaver.

Remember that Password protection is not used if you start the screen saver manually from the Microsoft Office toolbar, by double-clicking the screen saver (.scr) file in Windows Explorer, or by clicking Preview on the Screen Saver tab in Display properties. The password protection is used only if the screen saver starts automatically when the wait time has expired.

And from Microsoft Screensaver Password Protection Does Not Work

No need for apologies everyone makes mistakes.
but yea I just my issue is just one of those Microsoft problems that cannot be fixed.

oh well guess I'll try the Crtl+Alt+Del method you mentioned earlier.

~Thank you for the suggestion.