How to change the logon screen saver in Windows

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

This step-by-step article describes how to change the default logon screen saver. When you start Windows, a Begin Logon dialog box prompts you to press CTRL+ALT+DEL to log on. By default, if you do not press a key for 15 minutes, the Windows logon screen saver (Logon.scr) starts.

Change the logon screen saver

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and click OK.
2. Locate the following registry key:
   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
3. In the Details pane, double-click the
   SCRNSAVE.EXE string value item.
4. In the Value data box, type the path and name of the screen saver, and then click OK.
   
   Important Make sure that you specify the path correctly to the screen saver. If the screen saver is located in %SystemRoot%\System32, the explicit path is not required.

You have now changed the logon screen saver.

Change the logon screen saver timeout time

You can also change the amount of time that elapses before the logon screen saver starts. The default is 900 seconds (15 minutes).

To change the length of time before the logon screen saver starts, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and then click
   OK.
2. Locate the following registry key:
   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
3. In the Details pane, double-click the
   ScreenSaveTimeOut string value item.
4. In the Value data box, type the number of seconds, and then click OK.

You have now changed the length of time that elapses before the logon screen saver starts.

Disable the logon screen saver

To disable the logon screen saver, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedt32, and then click
   OK.
2. Locate the following registry key:
   HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
3. In the Details pane, double-click the
   ScreenSaveActive string value item.
4. In the Value data box, replace the number 1 with the number 0, and then click OK.

You have now disabled the logon screen saver.