Why does the save screen kick you off your computer?

Answer 1

"Save screens" do not "kick you off your computer" or otherwise prevent a user from using the computer. "Screen savers" (i.e., the image(s) that may appear after the user's computer has been idle for a while) were created to prevent old CRT screens and monitors - - which had very intense, power consuming, electron beams forming the characters and images on the screen, similar to old-style televisions - - from permanently "burning" characters and images on the screen. When a preset or user-entered amount of idle-time had elapsed, the screen would either go blank or display a low-intensity image to prevent this "burning". In the days before the "mouse" was created, hitting the keyboard space bar or "escape" (Esc) key was all that was needed to restore the image to whatever the user had on it before the screen saver took over. With the advent of the mouse, usually, just clicking one of the mouse buttons did the same thing. Today, with raster, LCD, plasma, and energy efficient monitors, making "burning" almost impossible, screen savers, today, are generally just "eye candy". However, some screen savers (or similar functions) may temporarily "lock" the computer, once the screen saver is activated, so that, if the user walked away from his/her computer, it wouldn't be left vulnerable or unsecured, such that someone could see potentially private information and/or accidentally (or purposely!) delete files. Some schools and businesses do this on purpose to prevent exactly that. Home computers can be setup to do that, as well. In most cases, either hitting a keyboard or mouse button (or a series or combined set of keyboard buttons) will bring up a screen that will ask the user to re-enter their user ID and/or password. Once the appropriate user has entered the correct information, the screen usually reverts to display whatever the user had before the screen saver was activated. In the event that the screen saver does not restore the user screen, then either the user does not have permission to use that computer, or his/her time has expired (as may be the case at a school or library), or the user does not understand how to release the screen saver (i.e., many businesses have their own methods of de-activating screen savers).