How to invoke the screen saver in Windows in C#?

Question

I\'d like to invoke the user\'s screen saver if such is defined, in a Windows environment.

I know it can be done using pure C++ code (and then the wrapping in C# is

Answer 1

I think having a .Net library function that does this is highly unlikely - I'm not aware of any. A quick search returned this Code Project tutorial which contains an example of a managed wrapper which you mentioned in your question.

P/invoke exists so that you're able to access OS-specific features, of which screen savers are an example.

Answer 2

Working on any version of windows...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace HQ.Util.Unmanaged
{
    public class ScreenSaverHelper
    {
        [DllImport("User32.dll")]
        public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

        [DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "GetDesktopWindow")]
        private static extern IntPtr GetDesktopWindow();

        // Signatures for unmanaged calls
        [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
        private static extern bool SystemParametersInfo(int uAction, int uParam, ref int lpvParam, int flags);

        // Constants
        private const int SPI_GETSCREENSAVERACTIVE = 16;
        private const int SPI_SETSCREENSAVERACTIVE = 17;
        private const int SPI_GETSCREENSAVERTIMEOUT = 14;
        private const int SPI_SETSCREENSAVERTIMEOUT = 15;
        private const int SPI_GETSCREENSAVERRUNNING = 114;
        private const int SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE = 2;

        private const uint DESKTOP_WRITEOBJECTS = 0x0080;
        private const uint DESKTOP_READOBJECTS = 0x0001;
        private const int WM_CLOSE = 16;

        public const uint WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x112;
        public const uint SC_SCREENSAVE = 0xF140;
        public enum SpecialHandles
        {
            HWND_DESKTOP = 0x0,
            HWND_BROADCAST = 0xFFFF
        }
        public static void TurnScreenSaver(bool turnOn = true)
        {
            // Does not work on Windows 7
            // int nullVar = 0;
            // SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSCREENSAVERACTIVE, 1, ref nullVar, SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE);

            // Does not work on Windows 7, can't broadcast. Also not needed.
            // SendMessage(new IntPtr((int) SpecialHandles.HWND_BROADCAST), WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_SCREENSAVE, 0);

            SendMessage(GetDesktopWindow(), WM_SYSCOMMAND, (IntPtr)SC_SCREENSAVE, (IntPtr)0);
        }
    }
}

Answer 3

I've an idea, I'm not sure how consistently this would work, so you'd need to research a bit I think, but hopefully it's enough to get you started.

A screen saver is just an executable, and the registry stores the location of this executable in HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\SCRNSAVE.EXE

On my copy of Vista, this worked for me:

RegistryKey screenSaverKey = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey(@"Control Panel\Desktop");
if (screenSaverKey != null)
{
    string screenSaverFilePath = screenSaverKey.GetValue("SCRNSAVE.EXE", string.Empty).ToString();
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(screenSaverFilePath) && File.Exists(screenSaverFilePath))
    {
        Process screenSaverProcess = Process.Start(new ProcessStartInfo(screenSaverFilePath, "/s"));  // "/s" for full-screen mode
        screenSaverProcess.WaitForExit();  // Wait for the screensaver to be dismissed by the user
    }
}

Answer 4

I'm not sure you can use completely managed code to do this.

This uses Windows API but is still very simple: Launch System Screensaver from C# Windows Form