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Prevent Screen Saver supports a global keyboard shortcut that toggles protection between Active and Idle from any foreground application — you never need to leave your current window or reach for the tray icon. The hotkey is enabled by default using the Ctrl+Alt+P preset, and you can switch to a different combination or disable it entirely from the tray menu.

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How the Hotkey Works

Pressing the registered shortcut fires a toggle action that mirrors what clicking the tray icon does. If protection is currently idle, the shortcut activates it. If protection is active, the shortcut deactivates it. The tray icon, tray tooltip, and main window status all update immediately to reflect the new state, exactly as they would when using the tray controls. The hotkey is registered system-wide using the Windows RegisterHotKey API, which means it works even when the Prevent Screen Saver window is hidden or the app is running entirely in the background.
The NoRepeat flag is always applied when registering the hotkey. Holding the key combination down will not repeatedly fire the toggle — only the first keypress is recognized until the keys are released and pressed again.

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Default Shortcut

The default hotkey is Ctrl+Alt+P, registered as preset ctrl-alt-p. The hotkey is enabled by default when the app is first launched and after every restart, unless you have explicitly disabled it or changed the preset in settings.

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Available Presets

Five built-in presets are available. You can switch between them at any time from the tray menu.
Preset IDKey Combination
ctrl-alt-pCtrl+Alt+P (default)
ctrl-shift-f12Ctrl+Shift+F12
ctrl-shift-f11Ctrl+Shift+F11
ctrl-shift-f10Ctrl+Shift+F10
ctrl-shift-f9Ctrl+Shift+F9
If the default Ctrl+Alt+P shortcut conflicts with another application you use regularly, switch to one of the function-key presets. Ctrl+Shift+F9 through Ctrl+Shift+F12 are less commonly claimed by other software.

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Changing the Active Preset

1

Right-click the tray icon

Open the context menu by right-clicking the Prevent Screen Saver tray icon.
2

Open the Hotkey submenu

Hover over Hotkey to expand the submenu. The currently active preset is shown with a checkmark.
3

Select a new preset

Click any preset that is not already checked. The app unregisters the old shortcut, registers the new one immediately, and shows a balloon notification confirming the change: “New shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+F12.”
If the hotkey is currently disabled when you select a preset, the new preset is saved to settings and confirmed by a balloon notification, but no registration is attempted until you re-enable the hotkey.

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Enabling and Disabling the Hotkey

1

Right-click the tray icon

Open the context menu.
2

Open the Hotkey submenu

Hover over Hotkey.
3

Click Enable

The Enable item is a checked toggle. Clicking it flips the hotkey on or off:
  • Checking it registers the selected preset and shows a notification: “Active shortcut: Ctrl+Alt+P.”
  • Unchecking it unregisters the shortcut and shows a notification: “Keyboard toggle is turned off.”

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What Happens When Registration Fails

If another application has already claimed the selected key combination, RegisterHotKey will fail. Prevent Screen Saver handles this gracefully:

App continues normally

The failure does not crash or disable the app. All tray menu controls continue to work as usual.

You are notified

A balloon notification appears: “Could not register [shortcut]. Use tray controls or choose another preset.” An error dialog also explains the issue.

Failure is logged

The exact Win32 error code is written to the diagnostics log so you can trace the cause if needed.

Hotkey is marked disabled

If registration fails when enabling the hotkey, the enabled flag is automatically set back to false and saved, keeping settings consistent.

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Persisted Settings

The hotkey configuration is saved automatically to settings.json whenever a change is made. No manual save step is required.
settings.json
{
  "HotkeyEnabled": true,
  "HotkeyPresetId": "ctrl-alt-p"
}
SettingTypeDefaultDescription
HotkeyEnabledbooltrueWhether the global hotkey is registered at startup.
HotkeyPresetIdstringctrl-alt-pThe ID of the selected key combination preset.
If an unrecognized HotkeyPresetId is found in settings at startup (for example, from a corrupted or manually edited file), the app automatically falls back to the default ctrl-alt-p preset and saves the corrected value. See Startup Settings for the full settings file structure and file location.

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