A bit off-topic but perhaps someone who understands how the screensaver
works in Windows 10 may be able to shed some light on this.

I'm running an Excel VBA program continuously all day. Amongst other
things it creates a UserForm appearing on the desktop every two minutes (containing just weather information as text), after removing the
previous UserForm. If I go to Windows settings and set the screensaver
to operate after 15 minutes mouse/keyboard inactivity I find that the screensaver never comes on. If I now disable the generation of the
UserForm in Excel, but still run the program to generate the
information, the screensaver does come on after 15 minutes
mouse/keyboard inactivity. From this I deduce that creating the UserForm
has the same effect as mouse or keyboard activity - preventing the
screensaver from starting. I find that a bit strange but, hey, this is Microsoft and there's probably a reason for it.

But what's even more strange is that when I force the screensaver to
start by running C:\Windows\System32\ssText3d.scr the screensaver comes
on immediately but it then stays on whenever a UserForm is created. But keyboard and mouse activity does turn it off.

Perhaps this is one for Excel experts, but I'd be interested to know the
reason for this behaviour.

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On Thu, 8/15/2024 7:19 PM, malone wrote:

A bit off-topic but perhaps someone who understands how the screensaver works in Windows 10 may be able to shed some light on this.

I'm running an Excel VBA program continuously all day. Amongst other things it creates a UserForm appearing on the desktop every two minutes (containing just weather information as text), after removing the previous UserForm. If I go to Windows

settings and set the screensaver to operate after 15 minutes mouse/keyboard inactivity I find that the screensaver never comes on. If I now disable the generation of the UserForm in Excel, but still run the program to generate the information, the
screensaver does come on after 15 minutes mouse/keyboard inactivity. From this I deduce that creating the UserForm has the same effect as mouse or keyboard activity - preventing the screensaver from starting. I find that a bit strange but, hey, this is
Microsoft and there's probably a reason for it.

But what's even more strange is that when I force the screensaver to start by running C:\Windows\System32\ssText3d.scr the screensaver comes on immediately but it then stays on whenever a UserForm is created. But keyboard and mouse activity does turn

it off.

Perhaps this is one for Excel experts, but I'd be interested to know the reason for this behaviour.

All I can find in Google, is something like this. Changing this
likely won't help your application, but this does indicate that
the Userform has an "ability" to signal how it is configured.

Userform:

"Application.ScreenUpdating = True" into "False".

*******

Windows has the capability, for a video application (hollywood movie player)
to assert a flag that prevents the screensaver from running (due to mouse inactivity).
This allows a two hour movie to play, without the user being annoyed
by the screensaver cutting in.

https://superuser.com/questions/387627/any-way-to-detect-what-is-disabling-the-screensaver

"Run powercfg /requests from an Admin Command Prompt. For example, mine printed:
^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
DISPLAY:
[PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume8\Games\Origin\Origin.exe
Playing video

SYSTEM:
[DRIVER] Realtek High Definition Audio (HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0900&SUBSYS_10438560&REV_1000\4&9793a48&0&0001)
An audio stream is currently in use.

AWAYMODE:
None.

Which indicates that Origin was playing a video and this was preventing the screensaver from running.
"

Paul

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On Fri-16-Aug-2024 1:24 pm, Paul wrote:

On Thu, 8/15/2024 7:19 PM, malone wrote:

A bit off-topic but perhaps someone who understands how the screensaver works in Windows 10 may be able to shed some light on this.

I'm running an Excel VBA program continuously all day. Amongst other things it creates a UserForm appearing on the desktop every two minutes (containing just weather information as text), after removing the previous UserForm. If I go to Windows

settings and set the screensaver to operate after 15 minutes mouse/keyboard inactivity I find that the screensaver never comes on. If I now disable the generation of the UserForm in Excel, but still run the program to generate the information, the
screensaver does come on after 15 minutes mouse/keyboard inactivity. From this I deduce that creating the UserForm has the same effect as mouse or keyboard activity - preventing the screensaver from starting. I find that a bit strange but, hey, this is
Microsoft and there's probably a reason for it.

But what's even more strange is that when I force the screensaver to start by running C:\Windows\System32\ssText3d.scr the screensaver comes on immediately but it then stays on whenever a UserForm is created. But keyboard and mouse activity does turn

it off.

Perhaps this is one for Excel experts, but I'd be interested to know the reason for this behaviour.

All I can find in Google, is something like this. Changing this
likely won't help your application, but this does indicate that
the Userform has an "ability" to signal how it is configured.

Userform:

"Application.ScreenUpdating = True" into "False".

*******

Windows has the capability, for a video application (hollywood movie player) to assert a flag that prevents the screensaver from running (due to mouse inactivity).
This allows a two hour movie to play, without the user being annoyed
by the screensaver cutting in.

https://superuser.com/questions/387627/any-way-to-detect-what-is-disabling-the-screensaver

"Run powercfg /requests from an Admin Command Prompt. For example, mine printed:
^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
DISPLAY:
[PROCESS] \Device\HarddiskVolume8\Games\Origin\Origin.exe
Playing video

SYSTEM:
[DRIVER] Realtek High Definition Audio (HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0900&SUBSYS_10438560&REV_1000\4&9793a48&0&0001)
An audio stream is currently in use.

AWAYMODE:
None.

Which indicates that Origin was playing a video and this was preventing the screensaver from running.
"

Paul

Thanks for that Paul.

I've tried your ScreenUpdating suggestion and that doesn't change things.

I've run powercfg /requests from an Admin Command Prompt. Mine prints
all "none", and still the screensaver does not activate.

So, I' still very much in the dark as to how to get screensaver to not
treat the creation of a UserForm in the same way as mouse/keyboard
activity. It seems to be some strange "feature" of the UserForm.Show
vbModeless method. Perhaps I need to hunt through the Windows Event log?

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