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In Windows Vista, you can use screen savers to create a Super Boss Key — a key combination, such as Alt+F10, that you can press to make the PC immediately switch over to running the screen saver. The Super Boss Key runs independently of the usual Windows screen saver stuff: The Super Boss Key doesn't affect the screen saver you set up to run on your computer when it's idle. The screen saver is just a handy program that won't look the least bit suspicious if your boss glances at your PC's monitor.
Setting up the Super Boss Key is really quite simple, after you figure out how to get Vista's search engine to work, as described in the following steps:
1. Make sure that Windows is showing filename extensions. You need to see filename extensions to find your screen saver programs.
2. Choose Start --> Computer. Then press Alt.
Vista opens Windows Explorer, pointing it at the entire computer, and then shows you the traditional menu bar (with the File, Edit, View, and other menus).
3. Choose Tools --> Folder Options and then click the Search tab.
Vista opens the Folder Options dialog box with the Search tab showing.
4. Select the Include System Directories check box and click the OK button.
"Include System Directories" means that Vista Search should look inside system folders. The Windows screen savers are all in system folders (although any screen savers you've downloaded and installed may also be located in other places).
5. Back in Windows Explorer, click the Views button and select Details. Then type scr in the Search box.
Vista warns you that the search may take a long time. And, man alive, it certainly can!
A few minutes (or decades) later, Vista comes up with, among other things, a list of files whose names contain the characters scr.
6. Click the Type column heading and scroll down so that you can see all the files of "type" Screen Saver.
If you open the Screen Saver Settings dialog box, you'll immediately see a correlation between scr files and the screen savers available in the Screen Saver drop-down list.
7. Pick a screen saver file that you want to use for the Super Boss Key (perhaps using the Screen Saver Settings dialog box as an aid). Right-click the appropriate file and choose Send To --> Desktop (Create Shortcut).
A shortcut to the corresponding scr file appears on your desktop.
8. On the desktop, right-click the new shortcut and choose Properties.
The Shortcut Properties dialog box appears.
9. Click once in the Shortcut Key field, and then press the key combination you want to use to activate the Super Boss Key, uh, screen saver.
10. Click the OK button, and your Super Boss Key is complete.
Go ahead and test it — press the key combination that you chose.
Table 1: Screen Savers and Their Program Files
Screen Saver
| File
|
3D Text
| ssText3d.scr
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Aurora
| Aurora.scr
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Blank
| scrnsave.scr
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Bubbles
| Bubbles.scr
|
Mystify
| ssmyst.scr
|
Photos
| PhotoScreensaver.scr
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Ribbons
| Ribbons.scr
|
Windows Energy
| ssBranded.scr
|
Windows Logo
| logon.scr
|
A few programs "swallow" certain odd key combinations — if such a program is running, it grabs the key combinations and doesn't hand them over to Windows, so Windows won't know that you want to run your Super Boss Key screen saver. Not many programs swallow Alt+F10, but some undoubtedly exist. So test your Super Boss Key in all your favorite clandestine situations before you really need to use it, okay? If you find that your chosen key combination doesn't work with an important program (the worst offenders are games), try different key combinations until you find one that makes the Super Boss Key work.
 | If you want to gussy up your Super Boss Key screen saver, right-click the shortcut and choose Configure. You can change all the screen saver's settings. |
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