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From: swh@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com (Steve Harrold)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: After Dark for Windows?
Message-ID: <67620007@hpcupt1.cup.hp.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 16:25:48 GMT
References: <2194@borg.cs.unc.edu>
Organization: Hewlett Packard, Cupertino
Lines: 55

AfterDark for Windows

I've been using it for about a week or so, and can report that it is quite
a pleasant blanker.  It provides about 35 different animated displays that
can be selected when "blanking" the screen.  An interesting feature is
that most of the animation displays can be further customized by you to 
control e.g. how fast the flying toasters move or what text appears in a
floating message (so that people visiting your unattended machine can know 
where you are).

The package also provides a developer's kit (requires the SDK) to let you
design additional annimations and to allow programmatic access to the blanker
from an application.  Furthermore, some .BMP files are supplied.

Blanking is triggered by "hot corners" (placing the mouse pointer into such
a location immediately blanks the screen), by a timeout period, or by a
hot key combo.  Unblanking is caused by a mouse action, a keyboard press
or both (the default).  A password facility is provided.  If a DOS 
application is up in a window, you have the option of never blanking while 
it is the active window, or blanking under the usual conditions.

In order to get these displays, there is a disk cost to store them all.
If you install all 35 animations and kits you're looking at 930KB of disk 
space.  By comparison, ScreenPeace 1.2 supplies 6 animations for a total disk
cost of 65KB.  SP animations run about 3-5KB each, versus AD's 6-100KB each.
Neither product requires you to load any animations (you get a black screen
in this case) in which case the disk costs are 150KB vs 48KB.  I don't have 
access to Intermission (the SP follow-on), so I cannot provide its statistics.  

Two problems I've detected with AfterDark:

    1) When blanking a full-screen DOS application, it does not always
       restore the proper colors when it stops blanking.  I've not been
       bothered by that as I can run a simple utility to reset the palette.

    2) Whenever the application Reflection for Windows (it provides an HP
       terminal emulation facility) is active in a window or as an icon, 
       AfterDark refuses to kick in.  Normally, the AfterDark icon blinks 
       when it detects that it's time to blank, but in this situation, it 
       does nothiong further.  ScreenPeace handles the case just fine.
       Neither product kicks in when the Word for Windows tutorial is
       active in a window.


Overall, I'm quite happy with it, and will continue to use it.  I'm presently
writing to the AfterDark people about my problems and am hopeful of a
remedy.

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Steve Harrold			swh@hpda.hp.com
				...hplabs!hpda!swh
				HPG200/11
				(408) 447-5580
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