[confirm] password-protected screen saver in Windows Policy locks session when playing video (1 Viewer)

[el Filou]

MediaPortal Version: 1.2.0 Beta
Windows Version: 7 Enterprise 32-bit SP1

Hello.

I presume this issue won't be experienced by many people, but I'd like to file a report anyway in case someone knows a solution.

Description: If there is an active Windows Group Policy rule that forces a system screen saver with password protection (i.e. system screen saver is enabled after session is idle for x minutes, and Windows session is locked), then system is considered idle even though full screen video is playing in MP, and Windows session is locked after x minutes.

Steps to reproduce:
- Use Microsoft Management Console's Group Policy Object Editor snap-in to force a screen saver with password protection: Local Computer Policy=>User Configuration=>Administrative Templates=>Control Panel=>Personalization=>Enable screen saver + Password protect the screen saver + Screen saver timeout.
- Play full screen video in MP. After the timeout configured in the policy, Windows session is locked while video is still playing. This doesn't happen with MPC-HC. It also doesn't happen if screensaver is configured manually through Control Panel.

In the attached logs (Note: not from my usual HTPC), I played a video until the session was locked after 10 minutes, then unlocked it, stopped video and exited MP.
Starting MP as administrator doesn't have any effect.

I noticed that while trying MP on a laptop that is part of a domain and has that policy enabled (I use said laptop to watch my TV recordings during my long train commute ).
This is of course low priority as not many users will be using MP in that scenario, but as it doesn't affect MPC-HC maybe there is an easy way to fix it?

Thank you and best regards to the dev team.

 

[el Filou]

Re: password-protected screen saver in Windows Policy locks session when playing vide

I tested on another machine, still member of the same Windows Domain but running XP.
With XP the Windows session is not locked out, but the screen saver still activates, and it seems this time MP detects it and so stops playback (there are much more messages in the log, whereas on Win7 playback goes on in the background while the session is locked and MP doesn't notice it).

As was the case on Win7, when testing with MPC-HC on WinXP the screen saver/session lock-out doesn't kick in at all and playing goes on uninterrupted.

I also noticed that the Windows system screen saver also activates in MP when no video is playing even on a standalone machine (i.e. without Domain-enforced screen saver, just configured manually).
I think this is a design flaw, as MP already has an internal screen saver customized to its use as a media center, but for some people (plasma owners for example, to prevent image retention) it would still be nice to be able to set a system screen saver in Windows beside the MP screen saver.
Could this ("detect system screen saver and prevent it in all states when MP is running"?) be added as a feature request to 1.3 or a future release, please?

Thanks.