Setting Screensaver Preferences

Default screensaver preferences are stored in a file that is called XScreenSaver. This file is stored in different locations, depending on your operating environment, as shown in the following table:

To modify screensaver application preferences, users can use the Screensaver preference tool. When a user modifies the screensaver preferences, the preferences are stored in the home directory of the user, in the $HOME/.xscreensaver file. For information about screensaver preferences, see the latest version of the Java Desktop System Release 3 User Guide.

Users can also run a command to start the Screensaver preference tool. The command that you use depends on your operating environment, as shown in the following table:

To set default screensaver preferences for all users, modify the XScreenSaver file. You can also use the XScreenSaver dialog to create a $HOME/.xscreensaver file, then copy the file to the location of the XScreenSaver file.

To restore the default settings for a user, delete the $HOME/.xscreensaver file from the home directory of the user. If no $HOME/.xscreensaver file is present, the default preferences in the XScreenSaver file are used.

The default display behavior of XScreenSaver is to display a blank screen. The blank screen might confuse users. You might want to change this default display behavior.

To activate changes to the screensaver preferences, use the following command to reload screensaver preferences:

# xscreensaver-command -restart

The xset application does not work with XScreenSaver at the time of publication of this guide. To modify screensaver preferences, modify the XScreenSaver file or the $HOME/.xscreensaver file.