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

How to Add "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" 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, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

While you must be logged in as an administrator to be able 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 speak "The Screen Saver has been disabled" to indicate the screen saver has been disabled (turned off), and speak "The Screen Saver has been enabled" 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.

EXAMPLE: Enable/Disable Screen Saver added to Desktop Context Menu

OPTION ONE

To Add "Enable/Disable Screen Saver" 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/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop, and go to step 4 below.
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


Download


3. To Toggle Enable/Disable Screen Saver without Sound A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and save it to your desktop, and go to step 4 below.
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


Download


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

5. Unblock the extracted .vbs file.

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 or press and hold on an empty area in the C:\Window folder, click/tap on Paste, then click/tap on Continue and Yes (UAC) if prompted. Close the Windows Explorer window.

8. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

9. If prompted, click/tap on Run,Yes (UAC-Windows 7/8) or Continue (UAC-Vista), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

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

NOTE: This is the default setting. 1. Click/tap 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


Download


2. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

3. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC-Windows 7/8) or Continue (UAC-Vista), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

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 or press and hold on the file below, click/tap 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.



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Screen Saver in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Turn Screen Saver On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Screen Savers in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8

 

[Arc]

Another nice tutorial, Shawn

 

[Brink]

Thank you Archie.

 

[pxfragonard]

Just brilliant.

 

[pxfragonard]

This worked well for me until I followed a tutorial to make a shortcut to change my screensaver with this text C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,1 as recommended here: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...screensaver-shortcut-taskbar.html#post2964838 and dragged it to the taskbar. Now the screen saver won't go on at all. I removed it from the context menu but that didn't help.I'm going to try to reinstall your context menu addition with sound this time and try again. Strange.

UPDATE: ...aaand it worked... I think the problem was I didn't unblock the .vob file the first time I did the without sound version. I think I prefer the with sound version: that way I know if I've disabled or enabled the screen saver. What a fascinating place, Windows Seven Forums is! Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

Hello pxfragonard,

That's only a shortcut to open your Screen Saver settings. Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing these settings to see if anything stands out for why it won't play you screen saver.

 

[pxfragonard]

Hello pxfragonard,

That's only a shortcut to open your Screen Saver settings. Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing these settings to see if anything stands out for why it won't play you screen saver.

Oh no, Sean. It's working fine now. Sorry to inconvenience you. Just curious about which settings you meant though... and I can suggest one improvement. The sounds of screensaver off and on are too similar. Is there any way to tweak the sounds?

 

[Brink]

Sure you can. You can edit the .vbs file to change the part in red below to be the full path of the .wav file you want instead.

Registry = "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaveActive"
Set Command1 = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set command2 = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Check = Command1.RegRead(Registry)
If Check = 1 Then
 Command1.RegWrite Registry, 0, "REG_SZ"
 command2.Run "wmplayer.exe ""[COLOR=red]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Logoff Sound.wav[/COLOR]""", 0, false
 WScript.sleep 1000
 command2.Run "taskkill /f /im wmplayer.exe", 0
Else
 Command1.RegWrite Registry, 1, "REG_SZ"
 command2.Run "wmplayer.exe ""[COLOR=red]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Logon Sound.wav[/COLOR]""", 0, false
 WScript.sleep 1000
 command2.Run "taskkill /f /im wmplayer.exe", 0
End If

 

[pxfragonard]

Sure you can. You can edit the .vbs file to change the part in red below to be the full path of the .wav file you want instead.

Registry = "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaveActive"
Set Command1 = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set command2 = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Check = Command1.RegRead(Registry)
If Check = 1 Then
 Command1.RegWrite Registry, 0, "REG_SZ"
 command2.Run "wmplayer.exe ""[COLOR=red]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Logoff Sound.wav[/COLOR]""", 0, false
 WScript.sleep 1000
 command2.Run "taskkill /f /im wmplayer.exe", 0
Else
 Command1.RegWrite Registry, 1, "REG_SZ"
 command2.Run "wmplayer.exe ""[COLOR=red]C:\Windows\Media\Windows Logon Sound.wav[/COLOR]""", 0, false
 WScript.sleep 1000
 command2.Run "taskkill /f /im wmplayer.exe", 0
End If

HAHA! VERY cool!!! I'm gonna try that tomorrow! Oh, sorry. I just found out I've been misspelling your name, Shawn..... you know... I think I'm starting to learn here.

 

[Brink]

No problem.

 

[pxfragonard]

Worked well for Windows 7 machine but not Vista

Don't know why. Did everything according to instructions.

 

[Brink]

Did you use step 2 or 3 in Option One?

I'll do some testing to see what the issue may be.

 

[pxfragonard]

I used step 2, Shawn.

 

[Brink]

Thank you. I've updated OPTION ONE for this issue with Vista, and it is now fixed.

Please redownload the .zip file from step 2 in Option One, and you'll only need to merge the .reg file to update for it to work again in Vista.

 

[pxfragonard]

Yup! That worked, Shawn. But one other thing didn't. In Windows 7, I changed the screensaver off sound to "Speech Off.wav" because it was more different sounding than logoff.wav and that worked. I tried it here and there's no sound. After trying it a couple of times I now find that Windows Media Sharing Service wasn't working properly and has been shut off. I used the exact same editing as in 7 and I'm pretty sure all the right no. of quotation marks are there. Puzzling.

 

[Brink]

Does that line in the .vbs file look like this below for the "Speech Off.wav" file? For me, I barely heard that .wav file with my volume at 100%..

command2.Run "wmplayer.exe ""C:\Windows\Media\Speech Off.wav""", 0, false

 

[pxfragonard]

Yes, it looks exactly like that. I can't hear it at all on my Vista machine though if I play the sound in Windows\Media or in "Sounds" from the taskbar, it sounds fine. Also it sounds fine on my Windows 7 machine.

 

[pxfragonard]

UPDATE: I noticed that, in the "sounds" I get right-clicking my speaker icon on the taskbar, the sounds are divided into categories so I chose another sound (battery low) from the same category as Windows Logon and now the Toggle sounds that sound. I'm not sure why but the sounds are distinctive enough for me to tell them apart. So I guess I'm good now, Sean. Thanks for your help. Odd though, isn't it? They're in the same folder in Windows\Media. Maybe it's because the sounds that begin with the word "Windows" is programmed to function differently than the others?

 

[Brink]

Glad you got it sorted.

It should work with any .wav file you wanted to play, but it is best to use one that can be easily heard.

 

[pxfragonard]

Thanks, Shawn.