Setting up a Windows screensaver is easy enough: just tell the system to wait for five minutes, say, and once you’ve been inactive for that period of time (no keypresses, no mouse movements) your preferred screen saver will be launched.

But of course the problem here is that inactivity doesn’t necessarily mean you’re away from the PC; you might be watching a video, or just monitoring some regularly updated webpage (stock prices, say). Ideally you need a little more control over exactly when the screensaver (or the power option to turn your PC off) is executed, then, and that’s exactly what Cyber-D’s AntiScreensaver provides.

If you watch videos or DVDs in VLC Media Player, for instance, then launch AntiScreensaver, click Add, enter VLC in the box and click OK. The program will then check the title bars of your application windows, once a minute, to see if any contain the text “VLC”. And if so, Antiscreensaver will simulate a keypress, fooling the system into thinking you’re still active.

It has one or two quirks, but for the most part the AntiScreensaver interface is simple and easy to use

Repeat the process with other application names, as necessary. And add the names of any websites where you might watch videos or otherwise spend a while just watching the screen (YouTube, say).

And once you’ve finished, click Close and AntiScreensaver will then run in the background, monitoring your running applications, and simulating activity whenever their title bars contain a match for your specified text.

AntiScreensaver has one or two small annoyances, mostly interface-related. The drop down list box containing your entered text doesn’t work as you’d expect, for instance (it doesn’t drop down or pop back up when you click the arrow to the right), and the dialog box just isn’t as clear as it should be.

It only takes a moment to figure out these quirks, though, and then you’ll find AntiScreensaver provides a quick and easy way to get more precise control over when your screensaver will fire.