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Computer users can enable, disable, or change their screen saver as well as adjust its properties by following the steps below. Click the link for the version of Microsoft Windows you're using or the Apple Mac link if you're using an Apple computer.

Screen saver in Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10

How to change a computer screen saver. Updated: by Computer Hope. Computer users can enable, disable, or change their screen saver as well as adjust its properties by following the steps below. Click the link for the version of Microsoft Windows you're using or the Apple Mac link if you're using an Apple computer.

1. Press the Windows key, type Change screen saver, then press Enter.
2. In the Screen Saver Settings window, click the down arrow.

3. Once you've made your selection from the drop-down menu, click Apply (A) and then OK (B).

Free Windows Wallpaper And Screensavers

The Preview button allows you to try out a screen saver before it is set.

If you check the box next to On resume, display logon screen, Windows opens the logon screen when a screen saver is disabled. Checking this option is an excellent way to protect your computer when you are away from your desk.

If you step away from your computer and want to let others know when you'll be back, you can use the '3D Text' screen saver as a way to leave a message. Once selected, click the Settings button and look for the Text section in the new window. Locate the 'Custom Text:' box to change the text displayed in your screen saver. For example, you could set the text from the default to 'I'm out to lunch, will be back at 1:00.'

Change screen saver in Windows XP

1. Open the Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, click Appearance and Personalization.
3. In Display, click the Screen Saver tab.
4. In the window that opens (shown below), under the Screen saver section, click the down arrow on the right side of the first box.
5. Once you have selected your screen saver (if you do not want to have a screen saver, select None) and adjusted any other settings to your liking, click Apply, then click OK.

The Preview button allows you to try out a screen saver before it is set.

If you check the box next to On resume, display logon screen, Windows opens the logon screen when a screen saver is disabled. Checking this option is an excellent way to protect your computer when you are away from your desk.

Microsoft Desktop Themes And Screensavers

If you step away from your computer and want to let others know when you'll be back, you can use the '3D Text' screen saver as a way to leave a message. Once selected, click the Settings button and look for the Text section in the new window. Locate the 'Custom Text:' box to change the text displayed in your screen saver. For example, you could set the text from the default to 'I'm out to lunch, will be back at 1:00.'

Change screen saver on an Apple Mac

1. Select System Preferences from the Dock.
2. In the System Preferences window, select Desktop & Screen Saver.

3. On the Screen Saver menu, choose the folder in which your image is located (A), select your image on the right (B), then (optional) choose how you want the image to fit the screen (C).

Additional information

• See the screen saver definition for further information and related links.

Is there any Windows application out there that will determine what process is preventing the screen saver from becoming active?

6 Answers

powercfg is built into windows and lets you control and view lots of power management settings.

This will create a very detailed power management event log, energy-trace.etl. Open it with Event Viewer and filter log by Event Source: Kernel-Power, Include event ID: 62.

This should give you events that look like:

The application or service DeviceHarddiskVolume1gamesSteamSteam.exe has overridden user power management settings with a code of 0x3.

The code may be different depending whether screensaver, monitor sleep, or another state transition was prevented.

Run powercfg /requests from an Admin Command Prompt. For example, mine printed:

Which indicates that Origin was playing a video and this was preventing the screensaver from running.

Sometimes just changing the time on the screensaver (not the type) to something else, say from 10 min down to 1 and then back to what you had it before will allow the screen saver to function normally.

Thanks to W1N9Zr0 for pointing me in the right direction!

In my case, it was an XP Pro (SP3) machine so the 'energy' switch was not available, However, the 'devicequery' switch indicated that it was either the mouse or the keyboard. Once I switched from the PS/2 keyboard I was using to a USB keyboard, the screensaver (and other power options) kicked in per the settings.

NOTE: When screensaver was set to 1 minute, it would sometimes kick in so I knew it was working. Anything above 1 minute and the screensaver would never kick in.

I find the culprit is typically a media player. You'd think it'd only be when playing video, but I have had some music players hold off the screen saver. For example I had Amazon Music and Groove open and paused today, and just found my screen still unlocked after an hour.

I'm not sure which is to blame, but I suspect them over the IDE and browser I was running, both of which do let the screen lock.

I don't know of any program that does this, but the way to find out is via the GetThreadExecutionState() function which will hold the value ES_DISPLAY_REQUIRED if the thread is currently blocking the screensaver from being activated.

If you apply this function to all of the threads in the system and then call GetProcessIdOfThread on the thread that you find, you'll have found the process that is blocking the screensaver.

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