No matter how much you enjoy your favorite screensavers, sometimes they can be rather annoying. Don't like them interrupting your presentations? Hate them disturbing you watching movies? Look no further. This article will show you how to gain full control over your screensavers in no time.
There's no doubt screensavers bring a pleasant variety to your desktop. Not to mention they prevent your monitor from burn-ins. Still there are times they had better sit quiet and hadn't interfered with your work.
Demonstrating a slideshow, watching a movie, reading an article - all these activities and many others may leave your computer with no keyboard and mouse input for a few minutes. Depending on your preferred settings, two or three minutes of inactivity may be enough for a screensaver to start and interrupt your work when it shouldn't.
The obvious solution to the problem is disabling screensavers right before any of those activities. However, it's very likely you'll forget to do it. Furthermore, it's even more likely you'll forget to turn screensavers back on later, thus leaving yourself without their benefits for indefinite time.
Thankfully, we are not the first people who encountered this problem. Quite many different tools already exist to help you. They range from simple support for screensavers in some applications to universal and powerful tools to control them.
If screensavers interrupt you often when you watch movies, but otherwise don't bother you, you may find it sufficient to use a media player that has a built-in support for screensavers. For example, Winamp and The Playa have an option to prevent screensavers from starting while they play a movie. Consider using one of them or another media player having that option unless you are looking for a more versatile tool.
For those of you who'd like to have full control no matter what you do, there are many universal applications. This time we will talk about two of them.
If you want a program that is easy to use and that would allow you to disable screensavers quickly and then easily enable them, Hot Corners is right for you. It's a small tool letting you control screensavers in three ways:
You can set one screen corner for disabling screensavers and another for starting them. This way moving the mouse into the first corner will prevent any screensaver from starting. Moving the mouse into the second corner will start your default screensaver. Holding the mouse in any other place of your desktop will make screensavers behave in the usual manner. For you convenience, Hot Corners allow you to vary the size of the corners. This way you won't waste too much time positioning the mouse precisely.
Alternatively, you can set a pair of keyboard shortcuts to quickly disable or activate a screensaver. You may prefer this method if you extensively use the keyboard while working.
Another useful feature of Hot Corners is Power Management control. Not only it can prevent screensavers from starting, but it also won't let your monitor to go in power saving and power-off modes.
Hot Corners were created by South Bay Software, and are available for download from
http://www.southbaypc.com/HotCorners/
Another interesting tool is Galt Screen Control by Galt Technology. It definitely lacks the variety of screensaver control methods available in Hot Corners. Nevertheless, it has many other features you may find useful.
There is only one way to disable screensavers using Galt Screen Control. You will have to right click the application icon in the system tray and select the corresponding option.
But there's more in it than simply disabling screensavers. You can select an option that will disable them for 1/2, 1, 2, or 4 hours, giving you even finer control. This way you will never forget to enable screensavers back later. Galt Screen Control provides an easy and convenient way to launch or configure any installed screensaver. It requires you just two menu clicks. Furthermore, the tool can select a random screensaver when you ask it. Alternatively, it can do it on each program startup or on an hourly basis.
You can download Galt Screen Control from
http://www.galttech.com/screenshots/screencontrol.html
Now that I've shared these little secret tools with you, it's time to show your screensavers their real master. Don't waste a second! Put them under control!
About The Author
Roman Kramar is a software developer who enjoys writing screensavers as his time permits. Visit his site at http://www.elasticsystems.com/ to find out more about screensavers and his work. webmaster@elasticsystems.com
We would like to give you several situations, when you... Read More
Are you one of those people that keeps track of... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions is emerging as very attractive vendor for... Read More
Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their... Read More
There are two approaches for application integration:? Programmer's approach ?... Read More
Homeland security, airport security, Internet security â?" these days weâ??re... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and MS CRM (client relation... Read More
.NET platform does not support multiple inheritance. Do not confuse... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is now standard mid-market ERP application, serving... Read More
Document Management or Enterprise Information Management is perhaps one of... Read More
When you buy a computer, it most likely comes with... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains serves multiple industries in the... Read More
The Microsoft system preparation utility for Windows 2000 is a... Read More
Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE,... Read More
Does Microsoft Have any Real Competition? Copyright (c) 2003 Gregory... Read More
You have gotten those E_Mails buy software at deep discounts.... Read More
Not all of us have the luxury of working both... Read More
If you copy something from a Web site or elsewhere...... Read More
A UNIX Shell is in simplest terms, a command line... Read More
In the early days of the personal computer, we're talking... Read More
Have you noticed WordPerfect is gearing up for a comeback... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More
Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can... Read More
What is Groupware?Have you ever had to manage document collaboration... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise... Read More
Many reasons made GBM a unanimous choice for experts, one... Read More
Great Plains Accounting, accounting package for mid-size and small companies... Read More
Each Industry and market niche has business specific and unique... Read More
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Overview covers What is ERP, Brief... Read More
Remember nice and prosperous Clinton era? When you implemented innovative... Read More
The Windows registry is a huge database that ensures normal... Read More
Collaboration SoftwareCollaboration Software, also known as group collaboration software or... Read More
There is many things more frustrating than surfing a website... Read More
If you are to buy a HelpDesk & Asset Management... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics... Read More
In our case ? we serve Microsoft Business Solutions ERP... Read More
Spyware, what it is and what it does. Basically, spyware... Read More
In our opinion, traditional approach when you select ERP/MRP system... Read More
Document Management or Enterprise Information Management is perhaps one of... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies... Read More
Currently Microsoft Business Solutions is on the way of creating... Read More
While paper labeling CDs and DVDs may appear to be... Read More
Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE,... Read More
Have you noticed WordPerfect is gearing up for a comeback... Read More
Microsoft CRM has built-in conversion tool, however you should probably... Read More
Microsoft bought Navision, Denmark based software development company, along with... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very popular ERP/MRP applications... Read More
While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination,... Read More
What is Colossus?Colossus is software licensed to about twenty-five insurance... Read More
Words we choose to describe things and phenomena often show... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions product, targeted... Read More
We've all seen the ads on TV for Netzero 3G.... Read More
Usually workflow & messaging is realized in CRM and then... Read More
The most important things you can do for your computer... Read More
After almost two decades of existence, Quark has become the... Read More
For those who still don't know, Microsoft Publisher helps computer... Read More
Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More
Microsoft Retail Management (RMS) and Microsoft Great Plains are retail... Read More
The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange... Read More
Our opinion is based on our Microsoft Business Solutions Great... Read More
Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays thetasks... Read More
One of the main reasons business owners and entrepreneurs use... Read More
Table of Contents1) Introduction 2) Related Work 3) Framework 4)... Read More
Beginning with Domino version R4 it has integration with the... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is scaled down Great... Read More
To all web designers out there, this article is for... Read More
Software |