How do I prevent Firefox from disabling Windows screensaver?
I have a machine running Windows 10 and the current release of Firefox, connected to a plasma TV as its primary display. Firefox currently blocks the screensaver from activating when playing media, such as on Youtube, which has already resulted in some burn-in on the display. Is there a setting in Firefox's about:config, or an extension available, which will prevent it from blocking the screensaver?
All Replies (3)
Firefox doesn't have that control only the O/S can make those changes.
WestEnd said
Firefox doesn't have that control only the O/S can make those changes.
Thanks for your quick reply, perhaps I didn't explain the problem clearly. Firefox is capable of notifying the OS that it's doing something visual for the user to watch, such as playing a video. This doesn't change any OS settings, it just asks the OS not to dim the screen, go to sleep, or activate a screensaver while it's playing something for the user to watch. Enable a screensaver with a 1-minute timeout and play a 2-minute Youtube video, and the screensaver will not activate until after the video ends, likely 1 minute after.
The implementation seems to be called "wakelock" and the Windows implementation it calls an OS function called SetThreadExecutionState() with or without the flag ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED. I'm hoping that somewhere in between the HTML5 video management and the wakelock code there's a option to disable the feature, since it's caused problems for other users in the past.
With Windows I know it has Power Settings by the O/S and the screensaver I know still shuts the monitor off unless you change the power settings. Not sure how the Linux O/S determines power settings but if the Browser can control the O/S then that is akin to giving Malware full control of the system. Something of which shouldn't happen in any O/S regardless.