Does the Windows XP Screen Saver Defeat Work Idling?

It is *supposed* to work that way. I say it that way because for some unknown reason some screensavers are seen by boinc as being a user interacting with the computer. If it does, it will not process. The best solution is to let it run all the time (run while computer is in use) because the program will finish work units a lot faster, Unless you are using very disk or graphics intensive programs you will not notice any difference. The reason is that boinc runs at the lowest priority so that *any* program will override it and get all the computer cycles it needs. Boinc will still run but will only use cpu cycles that are not needed by another program. During *normal* use, such as checking mail, writing messages, browsing the web, etc. you don't use but a few percent of the available cpu cycles so boinc can run almost full speed during this time. I have my web browser, an email program similar to Outlook, an IRC chat program, a graphical file browser, a text editor, a graphical web page editor and half a dozen text terminals running plus I run a web server, a database server and several other applications and servers running all at the same time on a 500 mhz p3 and I am not slowed down at all by having boinc running.
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Jim

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