Password saver

Disables the drop-down list of screen savers on the Screen Saver tab in Display in Control Panel, which prevents users from changing the screen saver.\n\nIf you disable this setting or do not configure it, users can select any screen saver.\n\nIf you enable this setting, type the name of the file that contains the screen saver, including the .scr file name extension. If the screen saver file is not in the %Systemroot%\System32 directory, type the fully qualified path to the file.\n\nIf the specified screen saver is not installed on a computer to which this setting applies, the setting is ignored.\n\nNote: This setting can be superseded by the "Screen Saver" setting. If the "Screen Saver" setting is disabled, this setting is ignored, and screen savers do not run."ScreenSaverFilename="Screen Saver executable name"ScreenSaverIsSecure_Help="Determines whether screen savers used on the computer are password protected.\n\nIf you enable this setting, all screen savers are password protected. If you disable this setting, password protection cannot be set on any screen saver.\n\nThis setting also disables the "Password protected" check box on the Screen Saver tab in Display in Control Panel, preventing users from changing the password protection setting.\n\nIf you do not configure this setting, users can choose whether or not to set password protection on each screen saver.\n\nTo ensure that a computer will be password protected, also enable the "Screen Saver" setting and specify a timeout via the "Screen Saver timeout" setting.\n\nNote: To remove the Screen Saver tab, use the "Hide Screen Saver tab" setting."ScreenSaverIsSecure="Password protect the screen saver"ScreenSaverTimeOut="Screen

Cannot be set on any screen saver.\n\nThis setting also disables the "Password protected" check box on the Screen Saver tab in Display in Control Panel, preventing users from changing the password protection setting.\n\nIf you do not configure this setting, users can choose whether or not to set password protection on each screen saver.\n\nTo ensure that a computer will be password protected, also enable the "Screen Saver" setting and specify a timeout via the "Screen Saver timeout" setting.\n\nNote: To remove the Screen Saver tab, use the "Hide Screen Saver tab" setting."ScreenSaverIsSecure="Password protect the screen saver"ScreenSaverTimeOut="Screen Saver timeout"ScreenSaverTimeOut_Tip1="Number of seconds to wait to enable the Screen Saver"ScreenSaverTimeOutFreqSpin="Seconds:"ScreenSaverTimeOut_Help="Specifies how much user idle time must elapse before the screen saver is launched.\n\nWhen configured, this idle time can be set from a minimum of 1 second to a maximum of 86,400 seconds, or 24 hours. If set to zero, the screen saver will not be started.\n\nThis setting has no effect under any of the following circumstances:\n\n - The setting is disabled or not configured.\n\n - The wait time is set to zero.\n\n - The "No screen saver" setting is enabled.\n\n - Neither the "Screen saver executable name" setting nor the Screen Saver tab of the client computer's Display Properties dialog box specifies a valid existing screensaver program on the client.\n\nWhen not configured, whatever wait time is set on the client through the Screen Saver tab of the Display Properties dialog box is used. The default is 15 minutes."SUPPORTED_Win2kSP1="At least Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 1"Blank="

It, this setting has no effect on the system.\n\nIf you enable it, a screen saver runs, provided the following two conditions hold: First, a valid screensaver on the client is specified through the "Screensaver executable name" setting or through Control Panel on the client computer. Second, the screensaver timeout is set to a nonzero value through the setting or Control Panel.\n\nAlso, see the "Hide Screen Saver tab" setting."ScreenSaverActive="Screen Saver"ScreenSaverFilename_Help="Specifies the screen saver for the user's desktop.\n\nIf you enable this setting, the system displays the specified screen saver on the user's desktop. Also, this setting disables the drop-down list of screen savers on the Screen Saver tab in Display in Control Panel, which prevents users from changing the screen saver.\n\nIf you disable this setting or do not configure it, users can select any screen saver.\n\nIf you enable this setting, type the name of the file that contains the screen saver, including the .scr file name extension. If the screen saver file is not in the %Systemroot%\System32 directory, type the fully qualified path to the file.\n\nIf the specified screen saver is not installed on a computer to which this setting applies, the setting is ignored.\n\nNote: This setting can be superseded by the "Screen Saver" setting. If the "Screen Saver" setting is disabled, this setting is ignored, and screen savers do not run."ScreenSaverFilename="Screen Saver executable name"ScreenSaverIsSecure_Help="Determines whether screen savers used on the computer are password protected.\n\nIf you enable this setting, all screen savers are password protected. If you disable this setting, password protection

Its easy to create a screen saver with Visual Basic. All you need is a few forms and a little imagination. Here I have created a screen saver that displays several sprites which move around the screen glancing off its edges and each other. Once you have a Windows screen saver enabled, your Visual Basic application can Instruct Windows to Run the Screen Saver. Also discussed is how to work with Animated Sprites. This part can get a little tricky and uses memory device contexts and many of Window's GDI functions such as BitBlk (Bit-Block Transfer), StretchBlt, CreateCompatibleDC, CreateCompatibleBitmap, etc. As a side effect, this program shows how to create transparent bitmaps. You may want to see my Create a Transparent Bitmap sample for a more thorough discussion of that topic. First I will discuss screen saver basics then I will talk about sprites. Download Source Code Note: This is still a VB executable and requires the Visual Basic runtime files. To use your screen saver on another PC, create installation disks and install it on the target PC. The screen saver program and its executable (.Scr file) were developed in VB6. If you have an earlier version of VB, just open the program and recompile it. A Main form to act as the screen saver itself -- let your imagination be your guide. A Configuration or settings form to let the user customize your screen saver. The configuration form must save its settings either in an .Ini file or the registry. I used the registry since you need to read a value from there anyway. A Change Password form. Windows screen savers use ScrnSave.Lib to manage passwords. However, this is unavailable to VB. You will need to display your own dialog and save the password somewhere. Again, I use the registry. (I used my Registry.bas module to read and write the registry. It contains all the necessary functionality). A Password Entry dialog. When the user attempts to disable the screen saver you need to prompt them for a password. I modeled all my password forms and message boxes to

Look exactly like Windows. Right down to their size, shape and message text. Here are the basics of what your screen saver should do. See the source code for details. Your Main form should have the following properties: BorderStyle None Caption "" ControlBox False Icon None ShowInTaskBar False WindowState Maximized The MouseDown, MouseMove, Click, Double Click, KeyPress and KeyDown events must End the program. Because the MouseMove event fires when the form is maximized, you must write code to handle this. Otherwise on the initial load your screen saver will exit. For example: Private Sub Form_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, x As Single, Y As Single) Static iCount As Long If iCount > 2 Then End Else iCount = iCount + 1 End If End Sub Use Sub Main to start your program. Since when previewing your screen saver you must Load your main form then make it a child of the Preview window prior to showing it. Parse command line parameters. Windows passes command switches to the screen saver to tell it what to do. The following switches are used: When You: Windows Passes: You Should: Select a screen saver from the drop down /p Run your screen saver in the Preview window. Click the Preview button /s Run your screen saver normally. Stop previewing the screen saver /p Run your screen saver in the Preview window. Click the Settings button /c: Show your configuration dialog. Close your Configuration form /p Run your screen saver in the Preview window. Click the Change Password button /a Show your change password screen. Click the Apply button /p Run your screen saver in the Preview window. Pick a screen saver and leave the PC idle /s Run your screen saver normally. Where is the handle of the Preview window. The Preview window is the small window on the Screen Saver tab of the Display Properties applet. Run your screen saver in the small PreviewWindow. Here is the cool part. When Windows sends a "/p" to your screen saver it needs to run in the Preview window. To do this you must