Screen Saving and Locking

I use dual monitors and I liked the windows screensaver that cycles through your images. However, that screensaver only works on one screen (at least for me) and I am using two. I found the google pack screensaver which will get the images on both screens (and do some other nifty stuff, like an photo stacking effect and specifying multiple image directories to draw from.) I use a modified version of the screensaver that removes the google logo and doesn't require you to download the entire google pack.

Here's the link.

If that link doesn't work, use this one.

Oh, and there's another screensaver related thing I did. We all know how to set the screensaver to turn on and lock after "x" minutes. And we (probably) all know how to lock windows manually (I use the built in win+l shortcut myself.) But... how can you turn on the screensaver and lock windows manually?

If you run the screensaver by double-clicking it (or executing the file without any options), it actually runs in its "test" mode, so the computer isn't locked. In order to get it to run AND lock the computer, use a batch file (text file that ends in .bat) with the following text:

 ::initiate screensaver of choice
 "[insert path to google screensaver program; i.e. C:\gbsaver.exe]" /s

 ::lock the workstation
 %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation

I mapped that batch file to "win+;" using PS Hot Launch and it has worked very well for me; instant screen lock and a nice showing off of pictures to my friends to coworkers. I bet they really apreciate that.

I do realize that since I'm using LCD monitors, screensavers don't really save the screen. With CRT monitors, screensavers changed the image on the monitor so that no image got "burned" into it (my wife's old crt had an error message ghosted into it.) With LCD monitors, it just wastes power and probably wears down the life of the LCD. This tweak was for fun; I have the monitor power off after 10 minutes or so anyway. I mainly use it to show off my cool images and getting rid of the boring lock screen. Also, it helps me not feel so bad about downloading so many wallpapers, but never using them. Read more about screen savers and their history at wikipedia.