# Disabling My Screen Saver

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disabling-my-screen-saver/65579>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 16, 2001, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disabling-my-screen-saver/65579 "2001-05-16T06:44:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2001, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disabling-my-screen-saver/65579/1 "2001-05-16T06:44:53Z")

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I pre-set my Norton Anti-Virus and Disc Scan to occur at about 1:30 am on Monday mornings, and I have been not running my screen saver, because it somehow negates the scan when it activates. So I am wondering if there is a way to pre-set the screen saver to disable itself before the Norton Utilities run, and then activate itself again? Probably too much to hope for, but I thought I would ask anyway.

Thanks

Quasi

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**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disabling-my-screen-saver/65579/2 "2001-05-16T08:23:06Z")

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You MIGHT figure a way to do this.

But I suppose you would be better off using a virus scanner that works better then Norton. Check out AVG. It’s small, not a resource hog, and it’s free with free updates. [http://www.grisoft.com](http://www.grisoft.com)

Short of that, I never use a screensaver myself. I just hit the power button on the monitor when I walk away from the computer.

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2001, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disabling-my-screen-saver/65579/3 "2001-05-16T09:34:36Z")

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You could use the EnergyStar feature on the screen saver control panel page to just turn the monitor off. I doubt that would interfere with NAV. Can’t say for sure, mind you, but I don’t see how it would, because it’s not launching another program like a regular screen saver does, it’s just sending out one little command to the monitor.

Worth a try. 🙂