How to Enable Screen Saver on Windows 10

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In this Itechguide, Victor teaches you how to enable screen saver on Windows 10. The guide covers steps for 2 methods to enable screen saver on Windows 10.

Option 1: Enable Screen Saver from Windows Settings

• Right-click Windows 10 Start menu and click Settings.

• Then, on Windows Settings, click Personalisation.

• On the left pane of the Personalisation settings screen, click Lock screen.

• On the Lock screen settings screen, scroll down to the bottom and click Screen saver settings.

• When the Screen saver settings open, click the Screen saver drop-down and select a screen saver – the selected image will be displayed on your screen when the screen saver is activated.

• On the Wait setting, select how many minutes your PC will be idle for the screen saver to be activated.
• Then, if you want your PC to activate the logon screen when you want to get back to using your computer, leave the On resume, display log-on screen checkbox. Otherwise, uncheck it.
• Finally, to save your changes and enable screen saver on Windows 10, click OK.

Option 2: Enable Screen Saver with Group Policy

There are 3 steps to enable screen saver with Group Policy:

1. Copy the Default Domain Policy GPO to a New GPO
2. Link the New GPO to an Active Directory Container
3. Edit the GPO to Enable Screen Saver

For the first and second steps use the steps in Create a Group Policy Object (GPO) and Link the GPO to an Active Directory Container respectively.

Then, follow the steps below to edit the GPO and enable screen saver.

• Right-click the new GPO you copied and select Edit. The Group Policy Management Editor will open.

• On the Group Policy Management Editor, navigate to the following policy and click Personalisation folder.

User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Control Panel 

• Then, on the right (details) pane of the Personalisation folder, double-click the Enable screen saver policy. The policy will open for editing – the default setting is Not Configured.

• To enable the policy, on the top left, select Enable. Then, to save your changes, on the bottom right, click OK.

• Double-click Prevent changing screen saver policy and enable the policy.

• Then, double-click the Screen saver timeout policy. By default, the policy is set to Not Configured.

• When the policy opens, on the top left of the policy settings, click Enabled. Then, set the screen timeout (default is 900 seconds – 15 minutes). Finally, to save your changes, on the bottom right of the policy, click OK.

As you can see, it is very easy to enable screen saver on Windows 10!

If you were able to enable a screen saver on your PC with these steps, click on “Yes” beside the “Was this page helpful” question below.

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Finally, for more Windows 10 Itechguides, visit our Windows 10 How-To page.

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