Screensavers and timers

joechummer · Post by **joechummer** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:24 pm

I have both an inactivity timer and an activity timer set in PWB for a system intended to be used as an internet kiosk. However, whenever the warning messages for either timer come up, if I let Windows handle the the sreensaver (a custom .scr we've put together), the screensaver quits due to Windows interpreting the timer warning dialog boxes as user activity. As it is now, with both timers turned on (inactivity set at 5 mins, activity set at 10, set to warn at 8 and 9 mins), the screensaver, set to come up every 6 minutes (to avoid the inactivity timer kicking it off), triggers once, after the inactivity timer first goes off, and then is never able to trigger again.

Is there any way around this?

I'm assuming that setting up the Windows screensaver in PWB.ini would do the trick, but I can't seem to get PWB to open the Windows screensaver even though I put in the path to a legitimate .scr file, set the WindowsScreenSaverMinutes (anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes, just to see if it will kick on) and set EnableScreenSaver to True.

Post by **Scott** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:51 pm

We need a bit more information to help answer your question.

What version of PWB are you using?

What version of IE are you using?

What version of Windows are you using?

What is your timer actvities set to?

InactivityAction=Home
ActivityAction=Exit

What is the URL your home page is set to?

What are your settings for all the screen saver keys?

[ScreenSaver]
EnableScreenSaver=False
ScreenSaverSeconds=1200
EnablePolicyScreenSaver=False
PolicyScreenSaverSeconds=10
DisableScreenSaverOnPolicyClose=False
DisableScreenSaverOnClose=False
WindowsScreenSaverExe=
WindowsScreenSaverMinutes=0

joechummer · Post by **joechummer** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:48 pm

I believe PWB is version 2.10.3. Using IE6 with WinXP SP2.

HomePage=http://www.daytondailynews.com

InactivityAction=Home
ActivityAction=Home

I did have the activity action as exit, but every once in awhile, closing PWB results in a "Do you want to report this error to Microsoft" crash, and won't reopen automatically upon close like PWB is supposed to, but this is a different issue entirely.

[ScreenSaver]
EnableScreenSaver=True
ScreenSaverSeconds=
EnablePolicyScreenSaver=False
PolicyScreenSaverSeconds=10
DisableScreenSaverOnPolicyClose=False
DisableScreenSaverOnClose=False
WindowsScreenSaverExe=C:\WINDOWS\system32\ddn.scr
WindowsScreenSaverMinutes=1

Post by **Scott** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:16 pm

The problem is that the home page has a refresh timer and PWB is interpreting this as user action and starting the PWB timers.

Code: Select all

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="900;url=/?r=t" />

Setting the following will tell PWB to start the timers only when there is mouse or keyboard activity.

[Browser]
StartTimersOnMouseKeyboard=True

You can further refine this with the following setting.

[Inactivity]
ResetOnMouseMove=False

These will allow you to use the normal Windows Screen Saver functionality.

I did have the activity action as exit, but every once in awhile, closing PWB results in a "Do you want to report this error to Microsoft" crash, and won't reopen automatically upon close like PWB is supposed to, but this is a different issue entirely.

There is a bug in PWB v2.10.3 that can cause PWB to crash if it is closed quickly after navigating to a site that loads slow. This has been corrected in PWB v2.10.4 currently in beta testing and available on the beta download page.

--Scott

joechummer · Post by **joechummer** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 7:45 pm

For some reason, I set both of these:

[Browser]
StartTimersOnMouseKeyboard=True

[Inactivity]
ResetOnMouseMove=False

and the inactivity timer's warning dialog still kicks out of the screensaver.

Post by **Scott** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:58 am

Please send a copy of your INI file to support@teamsoftwaresolutions.com.

This will allow us to simulate your setup and hopefully provide a solution.

--Scott

joechummer · Post by **joechummer** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:34 pm

It seems the problem was that since PWB was set to be "AlwaysOnTop=True", the screensaver would start on top of PWB, and when the inactivity timer kicked on -- regardless of whether an inactivity warning was enabled or not, PWB would activate on top of the screensaver! If PWB is quit with the override, the screensaver still runs until the mouse is moved. To get around this, I set AlwaysOnTop to False, and the screen saver runs over everything regardless of how often the inactivity timer carries out its function.

Thanks for the assistance.