Installing a Screen Saver Across a Windows Network

You can install a screen saver over a Windows network by running the ScreenTime installer in quiet mode or by creating a script specific to your requirements.

You can create a "quiet" installer, one with no windows or messages, by selecting the "Quiet Mode" option in the ScreenTime builder or by running the the installer from the command line with a "/q" switch.

To create your own script to install the screensaver on a remote machine, follow these steps:

1) Create a saver installer, install the saver on an admin machine, and navigate to the System32 directory to find your screensaver files. A screensaver built with STF 2.5 or later requires the screensaver engine and a corresponding directory of files.

C:/Windows/System32/savername.scr
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/*.*

The files in the “savername dir” directory include the following files:

C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/expire.scf
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/installer.scf
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/saver1.dll
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/saver2.dll
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/saver.dat
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/thenameofyoursaverswf.swf
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/setwnd.scf - settings window graphic (optional)
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/premon.scf - preview monitor graphic (optional)
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/ping.txt - See Handling Firewalls for information.

(optional)
C:/Windows/System32/savername dir/*.* - your external files (optional)

2) Write your script to copy these file onto the remote machine.

3) Set the saver as the active screen saver by adding a call in your script to our utility ActiveSaver. ActiveSaver is a command line application and is available as a free download from our resources:utilities page. To execute the application from the command line, type the application's full path name and parameter values.

Sample MS-DOS prompt command: C:\activeScr.exe mySaverName false

parameter 1: your saver's name - ex: mySaverName

parameter 2 (optional): true/false - Open display control panel after screen saver is activated. If you do not provide a value, the application will open the screen saver control panel.

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