Toggle Screen Saver AppleScript

Most Windows power users are familiar with "locking" their computers when left unattended. This is achieved by waiting for the screen saver to start (which can be set to require a password upon return) or by typing windows-L. This is especially important if you work with those possessing a mischievous sense of humor*.

So naturally I wondered how to do the equivalent of windows-L in OS X, and to my surprise no such equivalent exists. The closest thing one can do is set a "hot corner" to trigger the screen saver, which means if you move your mouse to a specific corner of your display the screen saver will start. Since I think this is lame as it is prone to misfire, I hunted down a cool AppleScript that does what I desire (toggles the screen saver with a shortcut key), as follows:

try
tell application "System Events"
   set the process_flag to (exists process "ScreenSaverEngine")
end tell
if the process_flag is true then
   ignoring application responses
       tell application "System Events" to quit
   end ignoring
else
   set the target_app to ((path to "dlib" from system domain as string) &
       "Frameworks:ScreenSaver.framework:Versions:A:Resources:ScreenSaverEngine.app") as alias
   tell application (target_app as string) to launch
end if
on error
beep
end try

I placed this script under ~/Library/Scripts, named it "Toggle Screen Saver.scpt," and using Quicksilver I was able to run this script with a trigger of option-L. Obviously one should check "Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver" under the System Preferences -> Security settings.


* The CEO of my company has caught my computer unlocked twice, and one time changed my language settings to Russian. That took a while to fix. The other time he made a smiley face with my desktop icons. Bastard.