Screen Saver start - hotkey or mouse

srosera · 23 Jan 2011

There are instructions on how to create a shortcut at Screen Saver Settings Shortcut - Create.

I created mine manually.

Keep in mind, when you create a shortcut for the screensaver, that any mouse movements or keystrokes you make immediately after you engage the screensaver shortcut will cause your screen to come back on. So, sometimes when you doubleclick on your shortcut, the screensaver starts and then pops back to a regular screen -- looks like the screensaver shortcut isn't working, but it is.

Lykho · 05 Mar 2011

does anyone know how to make a keyboard shortcut to activate the screensaver -- as opposed to merely displaying what the screensaver is. (the difference being you have to _wait_ for a password-protected screensaver to appear--shortcut to scr only displays the screensaver, it doesn't activate your screensaver preferences (e.g., 'return to logon screen')

Kari · 05 Mar 2011

First, create a shortcut for a screensaver as told here. Go then to Properties of your new shortcut and set a keyboard shortcut to launch it.

Screen Saver start - hotkey or mouse-screensaver_keyboard_shortcut.png

Notice that the post told above tells how to create a shortcut for "blank screen" screensaver but you can use the same method to create a shortcut for any screensaver of your choice.

To see names of the Windows 7 native screensavers open Explorer to be used when creating a shorcut, browse to Windows\System32 and type ext:scr to search box.

Screen Saver start - hotkey or mouse-search_extension.png

If you have some third party screensavers installed and want to use one of those, search for .scr files in respective program folder.

Kari

claprade · 29 Jan 2013

salvinorum said:

Same thing - create a shortcut to C:\Windows\System32\SCREENSAVERFILE.scr

Assign hotkey

go.

Oh yeah, of course, how simple, why in the world didn't I think of that, duh!

Thanx for the reminder! So simple.

Oh, one more thing. Should I use the .scr files in syswow64 directory or the system32 directory?

Works great! thank you....

ankrotachi · 25 May 2013

gforce23 said:

You could create a shortcut to toggle the screensaver on and off and assign a key combo to activate that shortcut via "shortcut properties > shortcut > shortcut key". Something like this maybe?
Windows Tips: Toggle Your Screen Saver With a Single Click - PC World

What do you mean by "shortcut properties > shortcut > shortcut key"??? How do you do this?

MourningStar · 25 May 2013

another option ...

The Win+L key combo is used to lock the screen. This light tool will fire-up your screen saver using this same key combo (i.e. no need to create a new shortcut or assign key):

How to Make Windows Start the Screensaver Immediately When Locked

MourningStar · 25 May 2013

MourningStar said:

another option ...

The Win+L key combo is used to lock the screen. This light tool will fire-up your screen saver using this same key combo (i.e. no need to create a new shortcut or assign key):

How to Make Windows Start the Screensaver Immediately When Locked

If anyone knows of a way to do this w/o installing this app I would appreciate it much.

-thnx!

hossj13 · 04 Jan 2014

gforce23 said:

What do you mean by "shortcut properties > shortcut > shortcut key"??? How do you do this?

Create a windows shortcut to the desired .scr file in C:\Windows\system32\ by right-clicking on the file then clicking "Create Shortcut" (It doesn't matter where the shortcut itself is located as long as you know where it is...you can either leave in .\system32\ or move to some other location, and can rename it as desired.)
Right-click on the just-created shortcut, click "Properties"
On the "Shortcut" tab, click in the "Shortcut Key" field, then press the key you wish to assign to actually run the shortcut.
Click "OK" to save your changes.
Pressing the assigned key/key combo should now start the screensaver.

Character keys (A, B, C, 1, 2, 3, etc.) will require <Ctrl> + <Alt> + <key>; function keys (F1, F2, etc.) should activate the shortcut by themselves.
Be sure not to assign a key that's already used for some other function...for example, F1 is pretty universally used to start HELP, so assigning it as the screensaver key would probably not be a great idea.
Note that your keyboard or mouse may have the capability to have shortcuts assigned to various buttons/keys...that's typically doable via a KB/Mouse config utility and usually doesn't require a Windows shortcut be created. The key/button can generally be pointed directly to the .scr file desired.

Screen Saver start - hotkey or mouse

Hotkey for screensaver