Defeating crazy screensavers

Sometimes, you may have to work in environments so crazy about security that you have to unlock your computer every five minutes. Here is a tip to alleviate the burden, on Windows computers at least.

Save this very short Powershell script in a convenient place :

$MyShell = New-Object -ComObject 'WScript.Shell'
while ($true) {
    [void]$MyShell.SendKeys('{SCROLLLOCK}{SCROLLLOCK}')
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 120
    }

What it does is simply to simulate pressing twice the “scroll lock” key of your keyboard. Then sleep for two minutes. Then do it again.

Now, in any session where you need it, simply run the script, and leave it running. Verified under Citrix and Remote Desktop. Also, unlike some other available tools like “Caffeine”, it does not seem to send garbage keys into your Putty terminal emulator, if you use one.

For even easier use, you may want to convert it to an executable file, using the excellent Ps2exe tool.

Disclaimer:

Please make sure this complies with the security policy in use at your workplace !

Please *do* lock your own computer when leaving it ! It will make you feel less guilty.