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Ideally, I'd like to be able to press 1 button on my keyboard and have the screensaver come up, and not just a preview, but the actual screensaver such that when I try to access the computer it shows a login screen (as per my screensaver settings). I say this last part in particular because I don't want a shortcut to the "Preview" button, which doesn't seem to require me to log back in after the preview (which is contrary to my settings and what I'm looking for).

If a single button isn't possible (i.e. via some local mapping or keys or whatnot), perhaps a quick combination of keys?

If all else is not possible, it would be handy to be able to trigger my screensaver via a shortcut on my desktop.

Are any of these doable? If so, how?

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2  
People still use screen-savers? – Marc Gravell♦ Oct 8 '11 at 8:20
@MarcGravell: Why not? – dmr Oct 9 '11 at 2:01
@dmr I (and many others) just set the monitor(s) to power down if not being used – Marc Gravell♦ Oct 9 '11 at 7:02
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@MarcGravell Some monitors take time to switch back from being powered down to an active state. Mine even switches the input signal, something I don't want, which is why I need a screen-saver. – slhck♦ Oct 10 '11 at 6:07
@slhck fair enough! – Marc Gravell♦ Oct 10 '11 at 6:23

4 Answers

up vote 29 down vote

Windows-L locks the screen immediately. Other than that, you'll need a utility to remap some other keystroke to that action.

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+1 (if I could give it to you) That's also a useful one to know :) – AllenP Oct 7 '11 at 21:14
Other useful ones: Windows-M minimizes all windows; Windows-E brings up My Computer; Windows-R brings up the "run" dialog. – BlueRaja Oct 8 '11 at 7:07
I've swapped Right Alt with the Windows key ages ago to be able to press this with a single hand. :) – Tom Wijsman Oct 8 '11 at 16:46
up vote 6 down vote

Sometime before there was an article on howtogeek.com:

Create Icons to Start the Screensaver on Windows 7 or Vista:
Right-click on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu In order to launch the screensaver, you’ll need to enter the full path to the screensaver file, followed by “/s”

%systemroot%\system32\Bubbles.scr /s

You would want to substitute the name of the screensaver where you see “Bubbles.scr” above. Also note that I used %systemroot% instead of C:\windows because not every install uses the C: drive.

If you don’t know the filename, you can browse down to your system32 folder and then search for “.scr” using the search box:

Not really one button, but one icon (and you can assign a keyboard shortcut) (and is hardcoded with the screensaver)

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up vote 4 down vote

If you wish to lock your computer via a shortcut, then setup a shortcut like this.

  • Filename: Lock Screen.lnk
  • Target: C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
  • Icon path: %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll
  • Icon Index: 47

You can even assign a shortcut key to the shortcut if you want.

lock shortcut

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Expanding off Zoredache's answer, you could just create a shortcut directly to the screensaver. This would trigger the screensaver, and if you wait longer than the idle time you set for your screensaver, the computer will be locked should you try to return. The smallest keystroke combination you can use is 3 keys with this method, as far as I know. – stoicfury Oct 8 '11 at 0:44
4  
-1 for trying to reinvent the wheel. Windows+L has done this since XP. – ThatGraemeGuy Oct 8 '11 at 5:21
3  
@Graeme Donaldson, I support a large number connecting to a terminal server. They don't have a Windows button to press. A portion of this large number of users also borders on technically illiterate, but they must be able to lock their computers. A shortcut on the desktop and pinned to the start menu and task bar make this easy for them. Also, not everyone likes to or is able to memorize a large number of keyboard shortcuts. The question also explicitly asked how to trigger via a desktop shortcut, I was simply answering the question that was asked, so I don't get the downvote. – Zoredache Oct 8 '11 at 19:27
up vote 4 down vote

The Mac has a functionality called hot corners, where when you move your cursor to a specified corner, the screen saver kicks in. This behavior can be duplicated in Windows 7 using an open source program called Hot Corners, which can be found here.

This would, I imagine, provide you with the fastest possible way to bring up your screensaver, as you wouldn't even have to reach for the keyboard.

Good luck!

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I know of hot corners-like functionality from Compiz in Ubuntu. As a user of that, I can say it can get annoying to have hot corners, especially when overshooting a menu in the top left corner – TheLQ Oct 13 '11 at 1:07

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