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Enabled screensaver?

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First post, by ILL Robinson

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Hello all-

Sorry for the n00b question, but I'm trying to find a way to actually enable the Windows screensaver, in combo with DosBox. Basically we have a few comps running programs for an exhibit, but want the comp to kick in the screensaver if the comp is left idle for a minute or so. Right now, dosbox seems to take priority and Windows won't engage the screensaver. I tried changing the conf and shift the priority down a notch, but that didnt seem to help.

Is it possible to have the screensaver come up? This might be a more general Windows question, but I thought to start here first.

Thanks in advance...

Robs

Reply 1 of 8, by MiniMax

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Hmmm. I have no idea how, if, and when Windows decides that it is time to go into screen-saver mode. I don't think it is CPU-usage, because I run one of those distributed computing clients that will use 100 % of the CPU when it can, and Windows still seem to kick into screen-saver mode (which is fine).

So, I guess it is something with mouse/keyboard activity. I don't understand how DOSBox would affect that and prevent the screensaver from kicking in.

As a last resort, how about installing Win3.1 and run the screensaver inside DOSBox?

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Reply 2 of 8, by ILL Robinson

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thanks, Minimax. That's not a bad idea. I'll need to locate Win3.1, but it might work. I'll continue to hunt down why my windows config doesnt kick in the screen saver with DosBox active.

Reply 5 of 8, by gulikoza

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Having researched this issue a bit...
It's SDL that will disable screen saver when a program is running (except that it didn't work in my case 😜)...you could probably edit the source and compile a version that will not disable it (search for SC_SCREENSAVE). The other problem is that dosbox *might* crash if screensaver is activated (depends on the output mode selected though)...

http://www.si-gamer.net/gulikoza

Reply 6 of 8, by ILL Robinson

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Hi Gulikoza-

Thanks for the heads up - that makes sense. Unfortunately, I'm not much of a coder - not that I wouldn't compile it, I just dont have a compiler to do so.

Until then, I might have to go with running any of the DOS programs in a reg WinXP command prompt.

Reply 7 of 8, by ErikGG

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Well thats easy to fix, here is a small app I compiled a few minutes ago. Just unzip and run.

When started, it will set the screensaver to active every second. With active I mean let Windows know it is OK to run a screensaver, not run the screensaver itself.

I added a small button to the app so that you can immediatly run the screensaver.

This should solve the screensaver problem. But remember what gulikoza said, it didn't on my account :

The other problem is that dosbox *might* crash if screensaver is activated (depends on the output mode selected though)...

Erik.

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    SSActivate.zip
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