Launch a privacy screen saver in Windows XP
A major annoyance when I am traveling, or at the workplace is when people are snooping and looking over my shoulder at my laptop. Rather than slamming the lid of my laptop, I thought it would be nice to setup a keyboard shortcut that would launch my screen saver and hide my work. We can do this quickly with a batch script.
The first thing we need to do is install a command-line utility called NirCmd. Download NirCmd from their homepage.
The second step is create the batch script. Open notepad and type:
nircmd.exe screensaver
Save the file and call it “screensaver.bat.” You can download my screensaver.bat file if you prefer.
Lastly, right-click on the screensaver.bat file and create a shortcut. Right-click on the shortcut and assign a shortcut key.
Now whenever you want to hide your work just enter your keyboard shortcut and your screen saver will launch.
Read more: Software, Windows, Productivity
Winters wrote:
Or you could just hit Windows Key + L and lock your laptop…
Posted 28 Dec 2006 at 11:38 am ¶
kylepott wrote:
@Winters: I wanted to create a technique that was a little more subtle.
Posted 28 Dec 2006 at 11:41 am ¶
Shaun wrote:
I can’t work out how to make a shortcut , mabye im just plain stupid please explain for a newbie to this stuff.
Posted 04 Jan 2007 at 3:14 pm ¶
kylepott wrote:
@Shaun: Right-click on the file named “screensaver.bat” and there should be a choice under “New” for shortcut.
Posted 04 Jan 2007 at 3:19 pm ¶