Screen Saver in XP

[FrankSG]

My OS is Windows XP Home edition. My Screen Saver has a mind of its own. I never did like to use the screen saver. So, I right-clicked on the desktop and clicked on Properties. I then clicked on the Screen Saver tab and set it to "None". But if I have my computer turned on and I'm away from it for a short time, my screen saver will come on. I'm wondering if there is a setting some place that I am unaware of that is over-riding the setting I have set. Does anyone know of a way that I can turn off the Screen Saver or disable it completely? Thanks.
Frank SanGregory

[Paul Komski]

After setting to none, did you click Apply and OK. Straight after return to the settings and see if they have changed back.

[ErnieK]

Have you checked to see if you have the turn off monitor set?.
Screensaver\Power settings

[UPENDRA UPADHYAY]

Screensaver is realy to save screen's chemical which is charged and discharged with electrons recieved through guns of CRT.It not adviseble to disable screen saver because it save the screen from burning.Eventhough you want to disable it open registry
find key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Wind ows\Control Panel\Desktop
creat a new DWORD value called "ScrenSvaeActive" and set it to "0"
to disable all screensaver

NOTE:EDIT REGISTRY IS DANGERIUOS TO SYSTEM:eek:

[sea69]

the "burn in image" was true and that is the reason for screensavers to begin with.

This however has not been the case for for at least (10) years- you would have to possess a really OLD monitor.................

screensavers these days are merely decoration and a waiste of system resources.

;)

[UPENDRA UPADHYAY]

SEA69,
Burn is true for today also, screen saver is for old monitor is not true. It is true that with devlopment of technology screen become muscular but tha technology is same,today monitor's screen also have phospherus coting to display which they recieved from electrodes.So constant electron beam will damage the screen.Have you seen a TV with black spot on center? It is the result of burning screen's phospherous due to "switch of spot"(one kind of fault in TV),Tv and Moniter have same technology for display. So it can damage the screen of today's monitor.

[FrankSG]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I think that there has always been some different opinions about the importance of the screen saver. The reason I feel that it's not important for me is because usually if I'm going to be away from my computer for awhile, I just put it in the Hibernate mode. The only time I leave it on while I'm away is if I'm running defrag or scandisk. When I'm running something such as that, I don't want the screen saver to kick in. It did the other evening when I was running defrag. I did what Paul suggested and that seemed to take care of it. When I set it up before, I just clicked on OK. So I went back and reset it, clicked on Apply and then OK. That seems to have taken care of it. Thanks again to everyone.
Frank SanGregory

[sea69]

What is screen burn-in? Should I be concerned about it?

In the past, leaving a monitor on for hours and hours would burn the image into the phosphor on the inside of the glass tube. Because the phosphor's phosphorescence had literally been worn out, this image would remain permanently "engraved" into your monitor's display.
Fortunately, modern technology has made this problem virtually non-existant. Today's monitors would have to be left on for years before they began to exhibit significant signs of burn-in. If you're still concerned though, feel free to turn the brightness down or install one of those nifty screen savers.


source (http://www.macintoshos.com/troubleshooting/monitor/monitor.html#monitor1)

GHOST / BURN

If monitors especially older CGA / EGA monitors are left on for long duration's of time as the electron beams cause the phosphors to glow. If the electron guns continue to do this for thousands of hours refreshing the same images this can cause the images to be burnt into the CRT surface causing a ghost image to appear. This image will become permanently displayed on your monitor for the duration of its life.

A resolution to this problem is screen savers, which is a program which generates a random set of images, lines or other methods of allowing the image to not remain static while the computer is not being used.

While new monitors (VGA / SVGA) do not have this issue screen savers are still commonly used today


source (http://www.computerhope.com/help/monitor.htm)

Definition: vb. 1. Burn in is when the coating on the inside of your monitor screen retain an image permanently. This occurs when someone leaves a display on the same screen constantly. NOTE: This particular condition was a characteristic of older monitors and dummy terminals. You do not have to be concerned about this with todays monitors.

Also Known As: Screen Burning

Examples: It was typical to see old green screens with an image of a form visible all the time.

Related Resources:

Choosing the Right Monitor
If the words pixels and resolution confuse you, then you are in the right place. Before you go off to buy your new monitor or entire system, there are a few things you should know about your monitor first. Don't make a mistake and buy the wrong one.

source (http://compreviews.about.com/library/glossary/bldefburnin.htm)






(bold, italic and underline by me)

edit- other good reasons to NOT use a screen saver:

takes up system RAM, it runs on a constant timer in the background

can interfere with running system utilities- defrag, scandisk

personally, I just have my monitor set to turn itself off after (20) minutes of inactivity





;)

[jabarnutcase]

Yep- In complete agreement with SEA..(And all of his links)
Besides those articles, I've read dozens of others.
"Burn in" no longer a problem with new monitors.

I, as sea mentioned, don't use one either though. Just have my monitor set to shut down after 1 hour of inactivity.

Although...Every once in a while I kind of like the plain ol' black WIN XP screensaver.
Looks kind of "professional" with the black background and the "Windows XP Professional" changing position on the screen. :D

[papertech]

I've often found screensavers to be problematic and therefore keep mine disabled.

I also disable my desktop's power management features in both bios and os for the same (resource hog) reasons. Is this a mistake?

(Should this have been a new thread?)

Thanks for your insight.