Hate Forced Password Screensaver

[Gerald Davis]

At work, the IT department has changed our system so that if we don�t use our computers for ten minutes it automatically goes into the council screen-saver and we have to retype are password to get back in. In our office there is not enough computer to go around so we often share. It is to use a someone else�s computer to find that it has a lock on it that makes it impossible to know if the other person has finished using his application.

Is there anything I can do to stop the screensaver from appearing other then manually shaking the mouse.I don't have administrative privalages so my option are limited.

[Marc Peabody]

You remind me of the good ol' days when Ctrl+Alt+Del could get around screensaver passwords and I could check my email at the local electronics franchises.

Anyway, there's some simple small apps that can set your mouse to continual motion. I think one might be called GhostMouse. There are some other "prank" applications (which might be less obvious what you are doing to the average passer-by) that shake the mouse cursor, which you could set to only shake by one pixel.

I used to use these programs to trick those banner ad programs like AllAdvantage back when they were popular (1999?). Before I discovered these programs I would set my mouse on a massage chair while I was away.
[ August 31, 2005: Message edited by: Marc Peabody ]

[kayal cox]

Originally posted by Marc Peabody:
Before I discovered these programs I would set my mouse on a massage chair while I was away.

[Gregg Bolinger]

YOu could write a java program that uses the Robot class to continually move your mouse around while you are away from the computer. There really is no good way around it other than keeping the mouse moving.

Or, you could build a lego mindstorm robot that tabs your spacebar for you every so often.

[Peter Rooke]

Gerald, you work for a council! Got the same thing sort of problems where I work Cannot even get onto JavaRanch, or gmail were I work - furniture police.

Do you write software? I ask because I know that most local authorities are now pursuing a "buy rather than make" policy .

----------------
"A problem for every solution" - The British Civil Service

[Peter Rooke]

Open a Dos (or whatever MS calls it now) window - and then stick one of those manuals / books on the space key. Old cobol manuals or one of those (many) orange VMS manuals, that litter large IT offices, may be useful for a change

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

I work at home. I find password-protected screensavers invaluable. My daughter once deleted all my Mozilla preferences six days after the latest backup; I was not happy.

[Stephen Boston]

You could be dealing with GLBA issues at work. The screen saver issue is one of the items you could get written up here at the bank for violating.

I've gotten into the habit of just locking my desktop as I start to leave my desk.

[Peter Rooke]

If you could get hold of a windows version of expect - and write a small program that keeps sending characters to the keyboard.

[basha khan]

Originally posted by Gregg Bolinger:
YOu could write a java program that uses the Robot class to continually move your mouse around while you are away from the computer. There really is no good way around it other than keeping the mouse moving.

Or, you could build a lego mindstorm robot that tabs your spacebar for you every so often.

.What about a Robert?.

[Gerald Davis]

I could not find any appropriate software, so I had to create my own. It is simple it just moves the mouse programmatically by one pixel every 7 minutes. I only tested it on XP but it should work on any windows.

Here is the Code
<CODE>

Option Explicit
Public m_nID As Long
Private Declare Function SetTimer Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIDEvent As Long, ByVal uElapse As Long, ByVal lpTimerFunc As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function KillTimer Lib "user32" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIDEvent As Long) As Long

Private Declare Sub mouse_event Lib "user32" (ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dx As Long, ByVal dy As Long, ByVal cButtons As Long, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Long)
Private Const MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE = &H1 ' mouse move
Public n As Integer, capt As String

Public Sub StartIt()
SetTimer 0, 0, 420000, AddressOf TimerProc
End Sub

Public Sub TimerProc( _
ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal lngMsg As Long, _
ByVal lngID As Long, _
ByVal lngTime As Long)
' hWnd: the window handle of the window
' associated with this timer.
' lngMsg: the WM_TIMER message (275, or &H113)
' lngID: the Timer's identifier (the same value
' returned by SetTimer)
' lngTime: milliseconds since Windows started (the
' same value as returned by the GetTickCount
' API function)

' Do whatever you want done every milliseconds
' here:
If n = 1 Then
Call mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE, -1, 0, 0, 0)
n = 0
Else
Call mouse_event(MOUSEEVENTF_MOVE, 1, 0, 0, 0)
n = 1
End If
Debug.Print ("test")
End Sub
</CODE>