Right click the desktop, properties - screen saver tab - click the power button - mine is set to always on, then turn off monitor in 20 mins, the rest say never. Click apply, then ok. I have nothing checked on the hibernation tab and no screensaver. See if that helps.

hobby_libby- The average computer may typically use about as much energy as a 100 watt bulb...more if it's really high-powered, less if not, and you'll generally use less overall if you are talking about a laptap rather than a traditional computer with stand alone monitor. An LCD monitor fully on (or with a screensaver) might use about 50 watts. So if your computer and an LCD monitor are fully on 10 hours a day, you're talking about using 1.5 kWhr. The cost for a single kWhr is maybe 10-15 cents in many parts of the country, so your total energy cost to have a computer and monitor on for 10 hours a day might be about 20 cents. Now if you decide to have no screensaver AND have it go into sleepmode when you are not using it, you could save at least 15 cents a day, or maybe $50 a year...if you have air conditioning going year-round. However, during the heating months, the heat energy thrown off by the computer goes to heat your home and the furnace has to provide a little less heat, so you get little benefit there. And, of course if you actually have the computer in use, then your savings will be proportionally less. Bottomline: if you put your computer in sleep mode, with the screen off, and you don't use the computer much, you'll save enough each month to buy one extra latte at Starbucks. Don't get me wrong. Saving energy and money is a good thing, and I'm not trying to discourage you. I was just making the point that you are not going to see the massive savings you might have expected. If you want to understand where the electricity really gets eaten up in your home, and how to conserve so you can reduce your bill in a noticeable way, check out the link below. At the bottom of the linked page there is lots of good info on things you can do, and how much different things in your home account for in the overall energy picture. Here is a link that might be useful: Electric use

I've been deliberately putting my Toshiba Satellite laptop into hibernation during the day, whenever I'm not using the computer for an extended period of time. I started doing this because my laptop overheated once to the point where I could smell wires burning. : O And, it's overheated a few times since then, but not as much. So, that's the reason I use hibernation.

If you feel comfortable with your security settings while you are at the computer then you are equally protected when you walk away. I never leave a browser open but my email is always iconised and set to look for emails every 5 minutes. This is a throw back to my dialup days when my wife and daughters would get excited if the girls could not get through on the phone because the old fool was on that new fangled internet thing again wasting his time. Well, I don't know if I am comfortable with my security settings, though they may very well be sufficient. I keep feeling like I have to hurry up and finish what I'm doing on the computer so I can go offline. That's a throw back to my dial-up days where I always felt rushed to get my internet stuff done so I could free up our one and only phone line !! :-D Also, I always felt (or was under the impression) that if anything happened while I was at the computer (i.e. if there was a sudden virus attack, spyware attack, attempt to download something I didn't request, etc.) I was right there and could stop it if it somehow got by my security software. But if things are all "hooked up" while I'm away from the computer, I worry (paranoid as I am) that something could get through w/o my being there to stop it. (I even unplug the DSL line when I go offline !!) Perhaps I need high-speed therapy or something. :-) Thanks for the comments, owbist ! Scott