AutoHotkey Community

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

i´ve made a little script, that acts like a screensaver.
If compiled and renamed to *.scr it will be launched by windows
like any other screensaver. So far it will only show a blank screen.
But i guess it can be a base for making own screensavers.

this is the 3rd version actually:

Chris · Site Admin Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 10716

Nice script. Although I haven't tried it, I think your approach appeals to people who like simple, working solutions (like me).

PhiLho · Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:12 am Post subject:

Well, it looks like a screen saver, but isn't one by Windows standards... See How to write a 32bit screen saver for the gory details...

Among other things, it should handle at least the /c /p (or /l) and /s parameters (plus /a), manage password in Win9x, call SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSCREENSAVERRUNNING,TRUE, ...) to lock Ctrl+Alt+Del), and so on...
Note also that theoritically, WinXP awaken the screen saver itself, ie. no need for monitoring the mouse or keyboard.
_________________

vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

Thanks for the link, it´s quite interesting but difficult.
I think reacting to command-line options is mostly harmless, but
the SystemParemetersInfo call is probably way out of my league.

After several hours of reaserch i came up with this line:

PhiLho · Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:52 am Post subject:

Well, if I understood correctly, these calls should make the screen saver immune to the use of Ctrl+Alt+Del to bypass the password entry phase, plus it allows other programs to check if the SS is running or not.

Thanks for reseaching. Being fully compliant isn't probably mandatory, I have seen many SSs written in Visual Basic that felt in the same pitfall. But then, they are unusable in some cases, because they offer no protection.
_________________

vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

I found now the right article on msdn http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B226359&x=19&y=11
it says:

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

After some more research and downloading the newest ahk version Wink

i came up with a new version
it uses OnMessage instead of timed subroutines and
supports (partially) the command-line arguments
it can be configured and saves the configuration in the registry
only about 10 lines of code have survived

PhiLho · Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:24 am Post subject:

Great, you are a persistent guy, and you created a real framework now.
I suggest that you edit the first message and either you replace the first script, or point to the "final" one.
_________________

vPhiLho := RegExReplace("Philippe Lhoste", "^(\w{3})\w*\s+\b(\w{3})\w*$", "$1$2")

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

thnx,
and i have learned a lot by doing this

Maurice118 · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 1

I want to say thank you for this nice script. It helped me alot to write my own screensaver that can start a program.
Saved me alot of time to do this not from scratch.

Thanks Zed Gecko

Maurice Cool

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

thnx a lot

gmoney · Guest

Is it possible to run a command on screensaver exit?

I tried inserting a "Run" command in the WM_ENDAPP() subroutine, but it does not work. Also tried WM_CHECKEND() and tried at the end of the script right before "ExitApp".

The funny thing is if I test from the command line or use the "Preview" button it works fine. When the system launches the screensaver it doesn't work.

Any idea how to fix? or any idea what is different about the system calling the screensaver as opposed to calling in manually?

Zed Gecko · Joined: 23 Sep 2006 Posts: 149

Well, to run a command on screensaver exit, i suggest to
add a OnExit subrutine to the code.
http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/commands/OnExit.htm

This is probably the savest way.
To be honest, i don´t know how the system stops
the screensaver when it´s really running.
I just followed the guidelines Philo posted above.
And from what i found out about screensavers, there are several
things that work different on the different versions of Windows.
So i would not rely on the functions triggered by Windows Messages,
maybe some versions of Windows just kill the process.

Murp|e · Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 531 Location: Norway

Has anyone actually used this framework to create a screensaver and/or updated the framework itself? I searched the forums for "screensaver" and -oddly- didn't find this thread, but when I searched the documentation I did. This framework is exactly what I've been looking for and more than I had hoped for!

I briefly tested it yesterday and it seems to work fine out of the box. Is there any way to preview a small version of the screensaver in the Display Properties window itself? As shown here.

Alternatively, does anyone know how I could an image in the Display Properties window? I think somehow a BMP image would need to be included in the .EXE file as a resource for this to work (ResourceHacker type thing.) Would it be possible to update this image dynamically or would it be static?

Z_Gecko · Guest

I think it is possible to show a live preview in the Display Properties Screen.
To qoute myself: