Add keyboard shortcut to start screensaver

[jonathanmwood]

It would be fantastic to be able to start the screensaver running with a keyboard shortcut. You could normally create a shortcut to the .scr file and asign a keyboard shortcut to that but wit Aerial it instead oppens the settings menu.

[VasilisPat]

A pretty easy procedure, as the app doesn't need to be involved. A tutorial to help you out can be found here.

[jonathanmwood]

Thanks!

Yes, I saw that tutorial before. The issue I'm having is that when the Aerial.scr file is accessed, instead of starting the screensaver, the settings menu for Aerial is opened.

Any ideas?

[unbeatable-101]

did you do the /s command argument?

[jonathanmwood]

Not sure what you mean by that. I did the PowerShell shortcut.

[unbeatable-101]

at the end of the command, type /s

[VasilisPat]

There is an option to start aerial via the command line. If you also put at the end command the /s argument, aerial will start in full screen mode.

The command should look something like PATH_TO_AERIAL_FOLDER\aerial.scr /s (In my case C:\Users\vasil\Videos\aerial-v0.5.3\aerial.scr /s)

You can also create a shortcut to reproduce this cmd command. Right click on your Desktop, choose New->Shortcut and paste this C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c PATH_TO_AERIAL_FOLDER\aerial.scr /s . As before, you have to replace PATH_TO_AERIAL_FOLDER with the path your aerial installation is located.

[jonathanmwood]

Unfortunately, neither of these methods have worked for me.

Here's the command I'm using: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c D:\Google Drive\Misc\Installers\aerial-v0.5.4\aerial.scr /s and here's the PowerShell shortuct: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command "& (Get-ItemProperty ‘HKCU:Control Panel\Desktop’).{SCRNSAVE.EXE}" /s.

The command line shortcut when opened quickly opens a blank icon in the taskbar then dissapears and nothing happens. The PowerShell shortcut still takes me to the Aerial settings menu.

[VasilisPat]

Seems like you are encountering a problem that many users report when using aerial 0.5.4, the process for the screensaver starts but not the actual screensaver. If possible try reverting to aerial 0.5.3 and please try the procedure again.

[jonathanmwood]

Can I have both versions installed? Don't want to uninstall and lose my settings and cached videos.

[VasilisPat]

Unfortunatelly, only one version of Aerial can run at a time.

You can remove and reinstall Aerial without losing your personal settings or cached videos (not official but worked for me 2 out of 3 times that I have reverted to an earlier version).

1. Take a copy of Aerial's cache folder and place it somewhere safe(ex. your Desktop). Aerial's chace folder location can be found here.
2. Remove Aerial from your pc (Skip the remove cached videos step)
3. Download an earlier version of Aerial and install it as per usual instructions.
4. Copy the cache folder you made a copy earlier and paste it at the location indicated above. A prompt that the folder already exists and you have to replace it should pop up. That's fine since Aerial has recreated a default cahce folder.
5. Change the cached videos folder location through the settings menu.

Note again that this is not an official procedure, but worth taking the risk since it has be proven to work.

[OrangeJedi]

With version v1.0.0 you can launch Aerial from the app tray. It isn't a keyboard shortcut, but it might help.

I'll keep this open because I like the idea of using a keyboard shortcut to start the Screensaver. I don't know if it will be an in-app solution or a guide on the wiki though.

[pparado]

Looking forward to seeing the shortcut key!

Would be great to press a single key when leaving the keyboard for a quick kitchen or bathroom break!

[OrangeJedi]

The feature is finally added natively in v1.2.0! The default shortcut is Control+Start+A, but you can customize it if you want. It will work as long as Aerial is running in the tray.