Programmatically prevent Windows screensaver from starting

Question

Is there a recommended way to prevent the Windows screensaver from starting? The closest thing I\'ve found is this article, but what I would really like to do is just tell

Answer 1

AutoHotkey can set SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE) with a 1-liner DllCall in script to easily accomplish this with a .ahk script.

AutoHotkey code to disable Screensaver:

DllCall("SystemParametersInfo", Int, 17, Int, 0, UInt, NULL, Int, 2)

AutoHotkey code to enable screensaver:

DllCall("SystemParametersInfo", Int, 17, Int, 1, UInt, NULL, Int, 2)

Reference Forum Threads:

F13Key - Toggling Screen Saver with SystemParametersInfo
SKAN - How to Disable Screen Saver Temporarily

Answer 2

Subtle. The official way to tell Windows that the system is not idle is SetThreadExecutionState. This resets the idle timer, (or turns it off, if you pass ES_CONTINUOUS ). However, even though SetThreadExecutionState resets the idle timer, it does not stop the screensaver!

Answer 3

This blog post details what you need to do in C++.

The actual code snippet from the website:

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
  switch (uMsg)                  
  {
    case WM_SYSCOMMAND:
    {
      switch (wParam)
      {
        case SC_SCREENSAVE:  
          return 0;
        case SC_MONITORPOWER:
          return 0;      
      }
      break;      
    }

    case WM_CLOSE:                
    {
      PostQuitMessage(0);            
      return 0;        
    }
  }
  return DefWindowProc(hWnd,uMsg,wParam,lParam);

}

Answer 4

Can't believe no one has pointed out the easy and obvious solution:

#include <windows.h>

void main()
{
   while(1){
      INPUT input;
      input.type = INPUT_MOUSE;
      input.mi.dx = 1;
      input.mi.dy = 1;
      input.mi.mouseData = 0;
      input.mi.dwFlags = MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE;
      input.mi.time = 0;
      input.mi.dwExtraInfo = 0;
      SendInput( 1, &input, sizeof(input) );
      sleep(60000);
   }
}

Answer 5

SystemParametersInfo

Specifically, the SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE parameter.

Does this not work? I was surprised that I did not see it here. Note that SetThreadExecutionState will not affect the screen saver at all, just the sleeping of the display.

Answer 6

From JD Design Freeware - Flipss.exe (download 12kb) is a command line utility that will set SPI_SETSCREENSAVEACTIVE for you.

"FlipSS.exe -h" to see the current state.
"FlipSS.exe /on" to set the screensaver on.
"FlipSS.exe /off" to set the screensaver off.