The choice of C-a as the Magic Screen Key Combo is unfortunate. I start my screen sessions thus: screen -e'^\\\'. This makes C-\ the Magic Screen Key Combo.

The choice of C-a as the Magic Screen Key Combo is unfortunate. I start my screen sessions thus: screen -e'^\\\'. This makes C-\ the Magic Screen Key Combo. C-\ has other meanings in some contexts, but in practice I've never used it. On the other hand, I use C-a lots, in Emacs and in shells. Also, if you plan to have more than one screen session, you can name them with -S <argument>. So: screen -e'^\\\' -S blahblah. You can reattach later: screen -Dr bla. If there's no ambiguity, you don't need to type out the full name.