Screen Saver Duplexer

[kmmatney]

A while back I wrote a screen saver program that would display a "standard" screen saver, while running any executable in the background. I know that most people do not use screen savers, but I get a large chunk of my ECCp production using this, so it must be useful a few others out there.

The program now has a dedicated web page at:

TA Duplexing screen saver

I've tested it with ECCp, SETI CLI, Folding, and the Sengent project. Its been tested with Win2K, WinNT, and Win98.

This screen saver is a good choice when have have to garauntee that the user will be unaffected by the DC project (ot to eliminate problems with Outlook, etc...)

P.S. For stealth operation, change the name of the TeamAnandTech.scr file to None.scr, or Blank_Screen.scr.

 

[Confused]

Thanks, this sounds and looks like a great piece of software

Hopefully i will be able to use this to assimilate the computers at my college/school

ConfusedBW

 

[Jeff7]

I installed it and have it running the SETIDriver program. Problem is, when I exit the screensaver, SETIDriver stops, but the SETI CLI client keeps running. I'm using SETI Driver to cache WU's (duh) and keep the process priority high. How do I make the SETI client stop along with SETI driver when the screensaver stops?

 

[micron]

<< I installed it and have it running the SETIDriver program. Problem is, when I exit the screensaver, SETIDriver stops, but the SETI CLI client keeps running. I'm using SETI Driver to cache WU's (duh) and keep the process priority high. How do I make the SETI client stop along with SETI driver when the screensaver stops? >>

Could you run the CLI w/ the screensaver, and then use Seti Queue to cach WUs?

 

[Jeff7]

SETI Queue? Guess that's another program like SETI Driver? Does it have an option to increase the priority of the process?

 

[micron]

<< SETI Queue? Guess that's another program like SETI Driver? Does it have an option to increase the priority of the process? >>

Seti Queue is a program that just caches WUs and keeps stats, for an example of Seti Queue see Orange Kid's Queue.

 

[kmmatney]

<< I installed it and have it running the SETIDriver program. Problem is, when I exit the screensaver, SETIDriver stops, but the SETI CLI client keeps running. I'm using SETI Driver to cache WU's (duh) and keep the process priority high. How do I make the SETI client stop along with SETI driver when the screensaver stops? >>



The program basically works by starting the specified executable as a process, and when the screen saver stops, the process is ended (just like killing a process through the task manager via ctl+alt+del). I don't use SETI driver, but I guess it must stop the SETI CLI on normal exit.

I'll download SETI driver and see how it works. Since a lot of people use it, it would be worthwhile to see if there is a way to make it compatible with it.

 

[IsOs]

What version of Visual Basic runtime does this program required?

This is probably good for thos machines that have problem with the client running 24/7

 

[kmmatney]

Its needs the version 6 runtime files.

When I have time, I going to recode it in Delphi, so there will be no support files needed.

 

[Jeff7]

process is ended (just like killing a process through the task manager via ctl+alt+del

That's probably why. Just hitting the Close icon at the top right of the SETI Driver window doesn't close it; that just minimizes it. You need to actually hit the Exit button to make it stop the actual SETI client.

 

[Kravahn]

This may or may not help... SetiDriver runs as a process, and the Seti@Home cli runs as a process. When I click the 'X' in the upper right corner of SetiDriver, SD is minimized to the tray. If I shutdown SetiDriver (in XP) via the task manager the setiathome-3.03........exe is still running. So, the Exit button on SD must kill the cli process. So in order to address this, you should just have to kill the SD process, then kill the cli process....

 

[Confused]

I installed this on my mum's AMD K6-233, and SetiWatch shows it as running away on a 0.055 AR unit, on Win98, not a good WU for that machine!

But, it is working exactly as planned, so when my mum uses the computer, it will go back to being how it was before

Thanks man

Would it be possible to add an option to use/kill 2 processes within the program?

ConfusedBW

 

[Jeff7]

I just tried it now to run the CLI. After about a minute, the HD started accessing a lot, and the screensaver gave a runtime error: Out of Memory. I've got 256MB here, and I kind of doubt that's even the problem.


Hmm, having another problem now. I have the screensaver set to run the command line client itself. However, it doesn't do any work. I run the screensaver, let it go for several minutes (no crash this time) and when I check the status, it hasn't actually done any work on the work unit.

 

[kmmatney]

I have been away on business travel this week, but will look at these issues when I get back on Sunday.

I have some planned fixes to make the program work with SETI driver.

I'm using it on about 5 machines at work, all running windows NT or Windows 2000, I only briefly tested it in Win98, but I test it out a bit better.



<< Hmm, having another problem now. I have the screensaver set to run the command line client itself. However, it doesn't do any work. I run the screensaver, let it go for several minutes (no crash this time) and when I check the status, it hasn't actually done any work on the work unit. >>



My guess is that if no work is being done, then the SETI CLI is not being launched. If you launch the client manually, does it do work? The best way to test the screensaver in Windows NT/2000 is to hit ctl-alt-del to bring up the task manager - leave it open to see all the processes. Then right click on the desktop to get display properties/Screensaver. Press the "preview" button on the screen saver. You should see your program appear in the task amager, using 100% of the cpu. I'm not sure how you would go about perfroming this test in Win98, since you since you can't see processes.

I should have a SETI driver compatible update by mid next week.