Windows 7 - Screen Saver - Turn On or Off

**Brink**

How to Turn Screen Saver On or Off in Windows 7

Information

A screen Saver is a moving picture or pattern that appears on a computer screen when the mouse or keyboard has not been used for a specified period of time. This will show you how to turn screen saver on or off in Windows 7.

Here's How:

1. Right click on a empty space on the desktop and click on Personalize. (See screenshot below)

2. Click on the Screen Saver link at the bottom of the window. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: Under Screen Saver is the name of the screen saver in gray used in your current theme. If the screen saver name is None, then it is turned off.

3. To Turn Off All Screen Savers
A) Under Screen saver, click on the drop down menu and select (None). (See screenshot below)

B) Go to step 5.

4. To Turn On a Selected Screen Saver
A) Under Screen saver, click on the drop down menu and change the screen saver to a listed screen saver other than (None). (See screenshot below)

B) Set your screen saver timeout period for how many minutes you want for how much idle time must elapse before the screen saver is launched.

C) Decide if you wanted to turn the screen saver password protection on or off (option one at link).

5. Click on OK. (See screenshots below step 3A)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

Guru2223 · 12-31-2009

when i right click on my desktop the last entry is "gadgets" there is no "personalize" button. how do i turn screensaver on or off?

**Brink** · 12-31-2009

Hello Guru, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you sure that you do not have Windows 7 Starter instead? If you do, then that edition of Windows 7 does not include the Personalize feature.

About Windows - Open

Guru2223 · 01-01-2010

Hi Brink!

Thanx for the reply. I checked, I have Windows 7 Home Basic, which seems also not to have the Personalize feature.

I managed though = by going to Control Panel > Appearance > Display > Screen Resolution and doing a search in that screen for "Screen Saver" got me there.

There seems to be no other way to get there in the version of Windows 7 I am using. Why MicroSoft changed a simple operation (which required one right click on the desktop before) to something so complicated defies logic.

Happy New Year!

**Brink** · 01-01-2010

Guru,

I'm happy to hear that you found a workaround for this. Strange, the Windows 7 Home Basic edition should have Personalize included with it. For now, here is a Personalize shortcut that you can use until we can get this fixed.

Personalization Shortcut - Create

You might see if running a sfc /scannow command may be able to fix this for you. If not then a repair install may be able to.

Guru2223 · 01-04-2010

Hi again Brink!
Thank you once again for your help.
Sadly, I have had a burglary at my house and my new laptop with Windows7 OS was stolen. The police came and took fingerprints and made all the right noises, but the chances are slim of recovering my loss.
Once my insurers have replaced the laptop, I will be sure to be in touch again.
With warm regards.

**Brink** · 01-04-2010

I'm sorry to hear that Guru. I hope that they at least catch the crook, and hopefully recover the laptop as well.

Wino · 01-06-2010

I am using my computer but need to step away, is there a way to start the screen saver immediately instead of waiting for the time to elapse before it starts?

**Brink** · 01-06-2010

Hello Wino, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes. You can create a shortcut from the screen saver .SCR file itself, then just click on the shortcut to start the screen saver at will. The blue NOTE box at the top of the tutorial below will show you the default screen savers .SCR file locations to be able to create a shortcut from.

Screen Saver - Change

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Wino · 01-06-2010

That does work but it does not prompt me for a password. You used to be able to move the cursor to a corner of the screen specified and that would start the screensave. This may have been a third party thing. What is needed is for you to be able to provide a "Hotkey" and that would start the screensaver.