Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite
3

Is there any Windows application out there that will determine what process is preventing the screen saver from becoming active?

share|improve this question
1  
Welcome to SuperUser. What version of windows are you using? – Raystafarian Feb 8 '12 at 20:05
1  
The screensaver not activating could be caused by three different issues: (1) a program is specifically preventing the screensaver, (2) the mouse is preventing the screensaver because it is “moving” due to a hair on the optical sensor (or dirty ball) or being perched on the edge of a desk/pad/etc, or (3) a program or mouse is preventing the power-management options from activating, and thus indirectly stopping the screensaver. I don’t know of any programs that can list other software that is blocking screensavers/power-settings on purpose, but the mouse problems are easy to check. – Synetech Feb 8 '12 at 20:14
1  
^ agree, have not seen a program that seeks out which program. Programs or processes, can often be stopped. When having the same problem, I set the screen saver (or other power options) to very very short, then test by starting and stopping things. Also some "devices" in the device manager, have "power management" tabs, those devices will give control of "allows this device to wake the comptuter" so when you run out of program options , you can move on to device options. – Psycogeek Feb 8 '12 at 21:16
2  
infosecblog.org/2011/03/windows-7-screensaver-timeout Group policy, Flash holding it out, and Vmware & Powercfg overrides. – Psycogeek Feb 8 '12 at 21:32
1  
doing a screen saver Preview , or using a program like the many small programs that kick it in directly pretentiousname.com/miscsoft/index.html#ScreenSave (screensave) can assist in discovery of what kicks it back off, or keeps it from occuring. that can save time. – Psycogeek Feb 8 '12 at 21:49

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

powercfg is built into windows and lets you control and view lots of power management settings.

powercfg -energy -trace

This will create a very detailed power management event log, energy-trace.etl. Open it with Event Viewer and filter log by Event Source: Kernel-Power, Include event ID: 62.

This should give you events that look like:

The application or service \Device\HarddiskVolume1\games\Steam\Steam.exe has overridden user power management settings with a code of 0x3.

The code may be different depending whether screensaver, monitor sleep, or another state transition was prevented.

share|improve this answer
I get "The power efficiency diagnostic library (energy.dll) could not be loaded". Why might that be? (the Power service is started) – Sanjay Manohar Apr 17 at 0:54
up vote 0 down vote

I don't know of any program that does this, but the way to find out is via the GetThreadExecutionState() function which will hold the value ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED if the thread is currently blocking the screensaver from being activated.

If you apply this function to all of the threads in the system and then call GetProcessIdOfThread on the thread that you find, you'll have found the process that is blocking the screensaver.

share|improve this answer
There is no "GetThreadExecutionState()". – James Apr 17 '12 at 8:41

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.