Seems like I read on this forum somewhere way back that a screen saver was more important with the older type monitors
(CRT????) BUT, I defer to the more knowledgeable amongst us.
Grady

I have not used a screensaver for probably 12 years. As Grady notes, they were important way back when the simple games that used a tennis court style layout were popular. The issue then was the static outlines of the court could and did burn or etch themselves into the screens permanently.

Ah those heady days of 12 inch screens :-)

The screensavers that animate, waste electricity. They use more than just showing your desktop or a static picture on screensaver.
You can blank the screen on most desktops ... and the monitor will go into a power saver mode and really save money.
Laptops... on mine I found a little program that turns off the display with a click that I use mostly,,, and the power options also will turn off the display after x min of non-activity to save power,, where the screen saver blanking the screen actually just paints it black and the backlight is still on.

Here's a one liner picked out of a screensaver discussion: "Notice also that screensavers may utilize a significant amount of CPU time."

What about turning the monitor off with the little switch on the front? Or do you need to use a setting to blank it?
How do you set the monitor on power saver mode? I don't like to put my computer into hibernation...I've not had good luck doing that.

Bought my first PC in 1996, I've never used a screen saver and have not had any problems. I turn it off at night when I shut off my PC. I asked the guys at Circuit city if they turn their monitors off at night and they said no and had two monitors with "something" on the screen, but it only shows when the monitors were off. He said they were old and that it was not necessary on the newer monitors. Everyonce in awhile I turn it on to show my photos, but haven't found a way to choose which photos to use. It uses all photos on my PC even documents with photos. LOL

I often just hit the off button on the front of my monitor if I am going to be away from it for a while and at night, the computers stay on at all times.

I do have the AVAST screen saver set on my windows computers so it can scan when on screen saver, but since I am using a KVM switch I am usually using the linux box with the monitor.

Energy Star monitors - most graphics card send a special signal with the blank screen mode and the monitor goes into its energy saver mode. My old 19 inch Sony CRT pulls about 5 watts in the blanked mode.

So..how do you blank the screen? Do I go to control panle, display, desktop and choose none?

Maybee,

There are other ways but the easiest way is right-click on desktop, select properties. Bring the screensaver tab forward. On the bottom, click on Power, and select the scheme you want. HTH.

Terry

Okay..I've got it...thank you :o)