Clear Night Software

How to create a shortcut to start your Screen Saver

When you are going away from your desk, you might want to start your screen saver immediately, rather than wait for Windows to start it. This especially applies if you are using a password-protected screen saver to secure your desktop.

Here is a very simple way to achieve this, without any programming:

Find your screen saver's program file. E.g. Press Start, Find..., Files or Folders... to find files named "*.scr" under your Windows directory.

Right-click the screen saver you want to activate, and choose Copy

Find your desktop. E.g. Right-click the task bar and choose Minimize All Windows

Right-click the desktop and choose Paste Shortcut

Try your shortcut now, you may be able to skip the next step.

On some systems, you may need to right-click the new shortcut, choose Properties and add /S to the Target field

You may want to rename the shortcut to "Start Screen Saver"

Optionally, if you are running Windows 98, you can drag the shortcut onto the Quick-Launch toolbar, so you can start it with a single click.