A Screensaver is a computer software program that blanks the screen with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use. In this article, we will learn how to Prevent Windows Users from changing the Screen Saver via the Registry Settings. The original purpose of screensavers was to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT. Though modern monitors are not susceptible to this issue, Screensavers are still used for other decorative/entertainment purposes. Please see How to disable Lock Screen on Windows 10, and how to disable automatic screen lock in Ubuntu Linux.
This is sometimes very necessary for some corporate environments where employees are restricted from setting some inappropriate images as their screen savers. Hence, it’s crucial to prevent Windows users from having the option to change the Screen Saver settings.
Kindly refer to the YouTube video on how to prevent users from changing the screensaver through the Windows Registry Settings.
Please see how to fix failed to pull the image with the policy “always” error from the daemon. Also, see how to delete ADFS Windows internal database without access credentials.
Screen Saver Settings
No matter the Windows edition you are using. Just have it at the back of your mind that the process of preventing screen saving is very easy and not a herculean task.
By default, Windows comes with six built-in screen savers that you can select from, but you may want to control these options to prevent changes.
In this guide, I will be using Windows 10 to demonstrate the best way to achieve this.
If you want to read more on the Windows system you can read these: How to Upgrade Windows 11 Pro to Enterprise and vice Versa, How to install Windows 11 on HyperV, how to Save XTM configuration file to a local or network drive, and How to Install Windows Admin Center on Windows 10 & 11.
Prevent Windows Users from Changing the Screen Saver via the Registry Settings
After logging on with the appropriate account, open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and give it permission to make changes to your PC.
In the Registry Editor. Use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key if you want to disable screen-saver settings for the currently logged-in use.
This is key to prevent Windows users from making unwanted changes to the Screen Saver.
But note that the following locations perform the same action and the steps are the same except that HKEY_CURRENT_USER apply only to the currently logged in user, while HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE apply to all users.
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It is very possible that you might not see a key named “System” under the Policies key, all you need to do is to create one.
Right-click the Policies key and select New > Key and give it the name “System”. But if the System is already there then skip to the next step.
See also how to disable Lock Screen on Windows 10 via Local Group Policy Editor, and how to enable or disable Screen Saver in Windows 10 or Windows 11 via Windows Settings or Group Policy.
Create a DWORD
Next, let’s create a new value inside the System key. Right-click the System key and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. You can name the new value “NoDispScrSavPage” and then double-click the new value to open its properties window.
In the Value data box change the value to 1 and click ok. This will ensure that Windows users cannot modify the Screen Saver settings.
After configuring all this when you try to open the screen saver setting you should get the below message.
Here are some related guides: What are screensavers? Reasons to use or not use them anymore, how to prevent saving of RDP Credentials in Windows 10, and how to prevent the installation of removable devices.
I hope you found this blog post on how to prevent Windows Users from Changing the Screen Saver via the Registry Settings helpful. In case you have any questions do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.
