Policy
Force specific screen saver
Microsoft Windows
Policy overview
Key metadata and intent for this policy.
Supported OS tags: Windows10, Windows10RT, Windows11, Windows2000, Windows7, Windows8, Windows81, WindowsRT, WindowsRT81, WindowsServer2003, WindowsServer2008, WindowsServer2012, WindowsServer2012R2, WindowsServer2016, WindowsVista, WindowsXP
Specifies the screen saver for the user's desktop. If you enable this setting, the system displays the specified screen saver on the user's desktop. Also, this setting disables the drop-down list of screen savers in the Screen Saver dialog in the Personalization or Display Control Panel, which prevents users from changing the screen saver. If you disable this setting or do not configure it, users can select any screen saver. If you enable this setting, type the name of the file that contains the screen saver, including the .scr file name extension. If the screen saver file is not in the %Systemroot%\System32 directory, type the fully qualified path to the file. If the specified screen saver is not installed on a computer to which this setting applies, the setting is ignored. Note: This setting can be superseded by the "Enable Screen Saver" setting. If the "Enable Screen Saver" setting is disabled, this setting is ignored, and screen savers do not run.
Registry values
How enabled and disabled states update the registry.
No explicit registry values are set for enabled or disabled states.
Policy elements
Inputs and configuration options exposed by this policy.
| Scope | Element | Type | Registry mapping | Constraints & behavior | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| User | Screen saver executable name ID ScreenSaverFilename | text | Path Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop Value name SCRNSAVE.EXE Type REG_SZ | None |