How To Prevent Changing Screensaver In Windows 7/Vista?

When you share your PC with others in your family, you may want to prevent them from changing the current theme, desktop wallpaper, desktop icons or the screensaver. After all you have spent time and effort in customizing your Computer to suit your taste and you don’t any accidental or deliberate changes.

Here are the steps to disable changing screensaver in Windows 7. The method works with Windows Vista as well.

Note that the steps described here use Local Group Policy Editor, which is not available in Home editions of Windows 7 or Vista. Also you need to be logged in as Administrator to perform the instructions.

1. Type ‘gpedit.msc’ in Start Menu’s search box and hit Enter. This will open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Personalization.

3. In the right pane, look for the setting ‘Prevent changing Screen saver’.

4. Double click on this entry to open the setting’s dialog, select ‘Enabled’ radio button and click OK to save your changes.

5. That’s it. You have locked your current screensaver. No one with limited user account will be able to enable the setting back again. The Personalization screen (Display Control Panel), which can be accessed via right clicking on your desktop, shows Screensaver option grayed out.

Want to enable changing screensaver back again so that you can apply a refreshing new one? Follow the same steps given above from 1 to 3. In Step 4 choose either ‘Not Configured’ or ‘Disabled’ and click OK.