To get things to work, first add the following to your .bashrc file: if [ "$PS1" != "" ] ; then PS1="[\u@\h \w]"'\[\033k\033\\\]\$ ' fi ## show Detached screens when you launch screen if [ -e /usr/bin/screen ]; then if [ "$TERM" = "screen" -a ! "$SHOWED_SCREEN_MESSAGE" = "true" ]; then detached_screens=`/usr/bin/screen -list | grep Detached` if [ ! -z "$detached_screens" ]; then echo "+---------------------------------------+" echo "| Detached screens are available: |" echo "$detached_screens" echo "+---------------------------------------+" else echo "[ screen is activated ]" fi export SHOWED_SCREEN_MESSAGE="true" fi fi After that is done make sure that .sreen* is located in your home directory. Under the .screen directory, you can place all the profiles you care about.