How to Enable or Disable Screen Saver on Windows
In this guide, I will be showing you how to enable or disable the screen saver on Windows computers via the Windows settings and Group Policy. This sometimes is very necessary for some corporate environments where employees are restricted from setting some inappropriate images as their screen savers. Please see How to disable Lock Screen on Windows 10, how to disable automatic screen lock in Ubuntu Linux, and how to make a screenshot on a macOS device.
No matter the Windows edition you are using just have it at the back of your mind that the process of preventing screen saver is very easy and not a herculean task.
Kindly take a look at this YouTube video for more information.
Disable the screensaver through Windows settings
If you want to read more on the Windows system you can read these: How to prevent Windows Users from changing the Screen Saver via the Registry Settings, How to Upgrade Windows 11 Pro to Enterprise and vice Versa, How to install Windows 11 on HyperV, How to Install Windows Admin Center on Windows 10 & 11
For Windows 10
The Windows settings are the easiest route in disabling any screen saver. You can decide to turn off the screen saver or change the screen out time.
Now go to the search box on your system taskbar and type settings
Click on settings and this will take you to the settings home page. You can also press the Windows key+i to open the settings home page. Now press Personalization
On the next screen click on Lock Screen
Now click on the ‘Screen saver setting’ and select ‘None‘.
Now click on ‘Apply‘ and the screen saver will be disabled.
Also, see How to make a screenshot on a macOS device, and how to Prevent the Saving of RDP Credentials in Windows 10
Windows 11
Now go to the search box on your system and type settings. Click on Personalization and to the right click on Lock screen
After the Lock screen page opens scroll down and click Screen saver
In the Screen saver section, you need to select None to disable or select from the other drop-down lists to enable.
Disable screensaver using Group Policy
For Windows 10 and 11, please follow these steps if you want to disable the screen saver for all users using the same device then using the Group Policy will be another good option.
You can press the shortcut key Windows key+R to open the Run dialog box. Then enter gpedit.msc and then press the Enter key.
After the Local Group Policy Editor opens go to User Configuration > Administrative Template > Control Panel > Personalization.
Go ahead and click on the ‘Prevent changing screen saver’ option in the right side.
When you click on ‘Prevent changing screen saver’ you will find the below three options:
- Not Configured
- Enabled
- Disabled
For the not configured and enabled, the screen saver will remain on and when you click on Disabled and apply the screen saver will remain disabled.
FAQs
Can I use a screensaver in Windows 11?
Microsoft has slowly but steadily pushed screensavers under the surface of the Windows GUI, you can still use them in Windows 11. In the Start menu search, type “screensaver” then click “Change screen saver.”
Are screensavers still necessary?
The short answer is no. Screensavers are not necessary on today’s LCD panels. It may not sound too exciting, but technically the best screensaver is to turn your screen off entirely
Where are screen savers saved?
The default screensavers you have installed can be found in the directory “C:\Windows\System32”. All screensaver files have the “.scr” extension, so you can use Windows search to search for any screensavers you download if you can’t find them.
I hope you found this blog post on how to enable or disable Screen Savers in Windows 10 via Windows Settings and Group Policy interesting and helpful. In case you have any questions do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.
