Windows 7: Screen Saver - Toggle On or Off - Add to Desktop Context Menu

   Information

This will show you how to add Enable/Disable Screen Saver to the Desktop context menu for users to be able to quickly toggle their screen saver on or off when say watching a movie or playing a game in Vista and Windows 7.

While you must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do this tutorial to add or remove this from the context menu, all users on the computer will be able to use the context menu item.

   Note

If you use the option (step 2) below that will play a sound, then it will play the Windows Logoff Sound.wav to indicate the screen saver has been disabled (turned off) and the Windows Logon Sound.wav to indicate the screen saver has been enabled (turned on).

When you toggle the screen saver to be enabled using this context menu item, Windows will still use the same screen saver that you had set to run before you toggled it disabled.

OPTION ONE

To Add "Show/Hide Known File Extensions" to Desktop Context Menu

1. Do either step 2 or 3 below for the context menu item that you would like to add.

2. To Toggle Enable/Disable Screen Saver with Sound Played

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop.
NOTE: When you click on the Enable/Disable Screen Saver context menu item using this option, you will hear the .wav sound file play only if Window Media Player is set as the default program for .wav files. If you do not have Window Media Player turned on in Windows Features, then you will get a error instead of the sound playing.

Add_Enable-Disable_Screen-Saver_to_Context_Menu_with_SOUND.zip

B) Go to step 4.

3. To Toggle Enable/Disable Screen Saver without Sound

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop.
NOTE: This option is if you do not want to have the .wav sound play when you use the Enable/Disable Screen Saver context menu item, or if you get an error from using step 1 since you have Windows Media Player turned off in Windows Features.

Add_Enable-Disable_Screen-Saver_to_Context_Menu.zip

4. Double click on the downloaded ZIP file, and extract (drag and drop) both the .reg and .vbs files below to your desktop.

5. Right click on the extracted .vbs file, click on Properties, click on the General tab, and unblock it.
NOTE: If you do not see a Unblock button, then the file is already unblocked.

6. Right click on the extracted and unblocked vbs, and click on Copy.

7. In Windows Explorer, navigate to and open the C:\Windows folder. Right click on a empty area in the C:\Window folder, click on Paste, then cick on Continue and Yes (UAC) if prompted. Close the Windows Explorer window. (see screenshot below)

8. Right click on the extracted reg file and click on Merge.

9. Click on Run, Yes (UAC-Windows 7) or Continue (UAC-Vista), Yes, and OK when prompted.

10. Enable/Disable Screen Saver has now been added to the context menu.

11. You can delete the download files left on your desktop now if you would like to.

OPTION TWO

To Remove "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" from Desktop Context Menu

1. Click on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop.

Remove_Enable-Disable_Screen-Saver_from_Context_Menu.reg

2. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.

3. Click on Run, Yes (UAC-Windows 7) or Continue (UAC-Vista), Yes, and OK when prompted.

4. Enable/Disable Screen Saver has now been removed from the context menu.

5. In Windows Explorer, navigate to and open the C:\Windows folder, right click on the file below, click on Delete, and Yes (if prompted).

Toggle_Enable-Disable_Screen-Saver.vbs

OR

Toggle_Enable-Disable_Screen-Saver_with_SOUND.vbs

6. You can now delete the download reg file if you would like to.