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Configure screensaver command line

We can configure screensaver settings through display settings. Screensaver can be configured from windows command line as well.

To set the screensaver to ‘None‘ from command line:

reg delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v SCRNSAVE.EXE /f

To set the screensaver to ‘Blank‘ from command line:

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v SCRNSAVE.EXE /t REG_SZ /d C:\Windows\system32\scrnsave.scr /f

You can get the list of screen saver options you have :

dir c:\windows\system32\*scr /b

On my windows 7 system it shows the following screensavers

C:\Users\administrator>dir c:\windows\system32\*scr /b
Bubbles.scr
Mystify.scr
PhotoScreensaver.scr
Ribbons.scr
scrnsave.scr
ssText3d.scr
C:\Users\administrator>

To set Bubbles as the screensaver you need to run the following command from command line.

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v SCRNSAVE.EXE /t REG_SZ /d C:\Windows\system32\Bubbles.scr /f
Srini

View Comments

  • To change the timeout limit for activating the screen saver you can run the below command.

    reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v ScreenSaveTimeOut /t REG_SZ /d 600 /f

    The above command sets the timeout to 10 minutes(regkey stores the value in seconds: 10*60)

  • For some reason can't get the TimeOut to work. I got a 5 minute policy so I set it to 300, but it remains on 10 minutes..

  • Run this after changing registry, or it won't work (Windows 7 but probably other versions, too):

    rundll32.exe user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters

  • reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v ScreenSaveTimeOut /t REG_SZ /d 600 /f

    above command works well. registry value updated. but user need to reboot!
    then it will be work well..

  • I wish someone could try to answer this: My screen saver is set @ 15- minutes. It will timeout at 15 or either 20- minutes. Why is it doing this? It has worked fine until recently. It run Windows Vista personal computer.

    Thank you!

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