BUG: SystemParametersInfo with SPI_GETSCREENSAVEACTIVE Always Returns True on Windows 2000 (318781)

RESOLUTION

You can work around this problem by querying the registry to check whether the screen saver is active. The presence of the Scrnsave.exe file under the registry key HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop indicates that the screen saver is active.

The following sample code demonstrates this condition:

HKEY hKeySreenSaver = NULL;
long lReturn = NULL;
long lScreenSaver = NULL;
DWORD dwData = NULL;
	
lReturn = RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER,
			TEXT("Control Panel\\Desktop"),
			0,
			KEY_QUERY_VALUE,
			&hKeySreenSaver);
if(lReturn == ERROR_SUCCESS)

{
	lScreenSaver = RegQueryValueEx(hKeySreenSaver, 
				   TEXT("SCRNSAVE.EXE"),
				   NULL,
				   NULL,
				   NULL,
				   &dwData);

	if(lScreenSaver == ERROR_SUCCESS)
		MessageBox(NULL, 
			   "Screen Saver is Active", 
			   "Screen Saver",
			   MB_OK);
		
	else
		MessageBox(NULL, 
			   "Screen Saver is Not Active", 
			   "Screen Saver",
			   MB_OK);
	
}
RegCloseKey(hKeyScreenSaver);
hKeyScreenSaver = NULL;