Screensaver Configuration?

Is there any way of making the windows screensaver respond only to keypresses and mouseclicks, but not respond to mouse movement?

Not that I'm aware of, but you could always write your own to respond in whatever manner you want. :)

It would be simple to do the black screen thing for sure. The only thing I'm not sure of how to do would be programming the DPMS on/off sequence as that's what I really want.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Surely the DPMS functionality is handled by windows, and has nothing to do with the screensaver app?

[edit] Oh, I guess you don't want mouse movement preventing your monitor from going into standby mode? Don't know how that can be achieved, sorry.

Thx anyway.

What I want is for the screensaver to kick in as normal and put the monitor in standby mode. But then, the monitor only comes back on with a keypress or mouseclick. In other words, moving the mouse won't cause the monitor to switch on.

The reason I ask is that I notice my optical mouse sometimes thinks I've moved it (i see the laser light up) even though I haven't physically touched it. This causes the screensaver to exit and the monitor to switch on. I'd replace the mouse but I've seen this happen on other people's computers. Just wondering whether there's a way to prevent it.

I've seen my mouse light up when the computer was turned off.

You could try a global MouseHook routine that you enable when you enter screensaver mode and then disable when you exit.

Have a look at this...
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/globalhook.asp

or google for global mouse hook

global hooks are not for the faint-hearted and can potentially screw up a system if you do not exit from them gracefully

Modern computers are never off, unless you kill the power before it hits your computer.

Power-on-LAN, power-on-modem, power-on-keyboard and power-on-date/time require the computer to be 'aware' of some of its peripherals at all times so they can boot up your computer if necesary.
The power button on an ATX case is not an old fashioned toggle-switch like the AT style cases used, but it simply signals the motherboard to do its thing and start booting.

You'll find that many motherboard have a green LED on the motherboard that will always be on to signal it has power even when the machine is turned 'off'.

Something to keep in mind while messing around with a machine exchanging peripherals while its still plugged into the wall -- unless you flip the master power swtich on the back of your case (if it even has one), there's a real danger you short out components.

the USB bus is another one that stays live while the computer is turned off -- you mentioned that you mouse sometimes kicks in. I have a bus-powered USB hub hooked up to my computer, and it has a LED that always glows blue, even if the machine is 'off'.

...Just imaging how much energy and resources are wasted in a year simply because hundreds of millions of devices never shut off and continue to use power, even though in 99% of the cases the end user would be just as happy (if not more so) if it would *truly* be off. Nothing like paying for power while you're not actually 'using' it.

I used to have power-on-keyboard set on my dev machine so that I could simply type 'GO' to boot it. However, I subsequently suffered a PSU failure which took out the mobo and HD. I'm pretty sure the 'always on' power-on-keyboard state contributed to this failure.

True, the PSU I had was a no-name what-not that came with the case, which I'm sure didn't help matters. However, I'm not taking any chances anymore - I now turn my machine off properly, via the power switch.

Have I understood this requirement right?

If I have, just write your screensaver in Blitz - something that will blank the screen, then do nothing until a key is pressed, like:

graphics 800,600,16,0
cls
waitkey
end

Compile this, rename the .EXE file as .SCR, stick it in your Windows folder with all the other SCRs, enable it as your screensaver in control panel/display.

It's a teeny bit makeshift because it doesn't handle the mode codes Windows passes to it (when you first select it in control panel, it'll actually run, for example) but you can safely ignore that, and it'll do the job.

No. :)