I am using one of the screensavers that comes with Vista (basic home edition, up to date with upgrades), but there are many times when it simply does not kick in. Is that one of the features of Vista?

what do you mean kick in?
what time do you have it set to?
and is it a laptop or desktop?

It's a laptop and the screensaver is set to 10 minutes. I assume it should start (kick in) after 10 minutes of inactivity.

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