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Passworded Screensaver - Manual Trigger

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A new corporate policy requires all users to have a password-protected screensaver which comes active after 30 minutes of inactivity. That comes with Win95. It also requires that users enable the screensaver when they walk away from their workstations. Is there a cheap and easy way to do that?
90% of our workstations are Win95, we are replacing with Win98, the solution needs to work on both.

12 replies

by mrdbcooper

Here is the easiest way to do it, and works in Win95 to Win2K.
Create a shortcut and add in command line the name of the screensaver file .SCR extension. You will find them (Unless someone moved it around) in the /Windows folder.
Once done you can keep it on the desktop and/or place it in the Toolbar of applications that support it (MS Office) or right on the status bar of Win98-WinMe.
Just click on the shortcut and DON'T move the mouse.
Thanks for asking!

by tmaclennan

This sounds promising, but our environment associates the .SCR extension with another app. What application is being used for the screensaver file, so that the shortcut can be built with the application named as well?

by drfox

One solution you could try not show if it will work is to assign a keystroke to the screensaver of your choice i.e CTRL+S or something along those lines, when the user leaves his/her desk it would just be a case of presing the Keystroke which will then initiate the Screensaver, unfortunately this would only work for one screensaver if you change the screensaver then the keystroke will have to be recreated for the new screensaver.

Hope this helps

David.

by joella

Easiest is to use the MS Office toolbar. On the toolbar's menu (the mulitcolored cube icon in the upper left corner)do a single left click, select Customize; Show these files as buttons. One of the selections will be Screen Saver, tick it and it will be on the toolbar for easy retriving. (The icon looks like a partially pulled down shade in front of a Window.)

If you don't use Office, this won't work ;).
Joell

by elvis69

This doesn't answer your question, but you do know you can just insert a CD with the autostart.ini and bypass win95 and 98 password protection. Something to think about at work for you. :o)

by gary_w

The following is a copy of an e-mail I sent out to others in my group to do exactly what you want. We used this method on both Win95 and Win98. Keep in mind this only keeps the honest people honest, it's easily bypassed if someone really wants to gain access to your system. Also I can't take credit for it, I believe I read how to do this in PC Magazine. Good luck, Gary:

**Disclaimer** Alter the registry at your own risk! Make a backup first!

These instructions will show you how to setup a shortcut on your desktop so you can start a screensaver on command.

First, run this script which changes the registry, telling windows that screensaver files (ending in .scr) are executable (just double-click it).

**See script contents below**

Next, right click on your desktop and select new/shortcut. Follow the screens, creating a shortcut pointing to the screen saver you want to run, for example: "C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\Scrolling Marquee.scr" (select "all files" in the browse window and look for files ending in .scr).

Right click on the shortcut for access to the configure and install options. Install will bring up the display properties dialog, allowing you to change the password.

Contents of fix_scr.reg:

REGEDIT4

; This file will fix the registry, changing .scr files (screen savers)
; to be executable.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Open]
@="Test"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Open\Command]
@="\"%1\" /S"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Config]
@="Configure"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Config\Command]
@="\"%1\""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Install]
@="Install"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\scrfile\Shell\Install\Command]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\rundll32.exe desk.cpl,InstallScreenSaver %l"

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