How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver

The default Windows login screensaver, while endearing, can quickly drain battery power or prove distracting, giving you plenty of incentive to remove it. Whether you would like to rid your login screen of this quirk entirely or just set a...
Method 1 of 2:

Disabling the Login Screensaver

  1. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 1How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 1
    Log in to your account. If you share a computer with one user or more, make sure you are using the administrator account; otherwise, you won't be able to make changes to the system settings.
  2. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 2How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 2
    Bring up the Start menu. Find the Start button and click it to bring up the Start menu; the appearance of your Start button will vary depending on your version of Windows, but it should always be in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
  3. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 3How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 3
    Find Run in your start menu and open it. If Run isn't listed as a default app, type "Run" into the search bar at the bottom of your Start menu. The pertaining app should appear in the search results.
  4. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 4How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 4
    Bring up the Registry Editor. Type "regedt32" without the quotation marks into Run and click OK to bring up the Registry Editor. This program will allow you to make changes to system processes--in this case, the login screensaver values.
    1. Your computer may display a warning that reads "Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your PC?" followed by app information for the Registry Editor. If this happens, simply click OK to proceed.
  5. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 5How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 5
    Locate the "HKEY_USERS" file. You can find this file in the upper left-hand corner of the editor. Click to expand it, then click the folder labeled ".DEFAULT" in the resulting drop-down menu to do the same, followed by "Control Panel". [1]
  6. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 6How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 6
    Locate and click on the "Desktop" folder to view its contents. Scroll through the right-hand side of the screen to find the value labeled ScreenSaveActive, then double-click it.
    1. In older versions of Windows, you will have to select a subfolder of "Desktop" labeled "Details" to view the ScreenSaveActive file.
  7. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 7How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 7
    Replace the number 1 with a number 0 in the Value Data box. This will prevent the screensaver from playing after several minutes of inactivity on the Login screen.
    1. You should also find the ScreenSaveTimeOut value and set it to 0, just to ensure that all of the system files corroborate. [2]
Method 2 of 2:

Changing the Login Screensaver Time Parameters

  1. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 8How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 8
    Log in to your account. If you share a computer with one user or more, make sure you are using the administrator account; otherwise, you won't be able to make changes to the system settings.
  2. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 9How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 9
    Bring up the Start menu. Find the Start button and click it to bring up the Start menu; the appearance of your Start button will vary depending on your version of Windows, but it should always be in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
  3. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 10How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 10
    Find Run in your start menu and open it. If Run isn't listed as a default app, type "Run" into the search bar at the bottom of your Start menu. The pertaining app should appear in the search results.
  4. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 11How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 11
    Bring up the Registry Editor. Type "regedt32" without the quotation marks into Run and click OK to bring up the Registry Editor. This program will allow you to make changes to system processes--in this case, the login screensaver timeout values.
  5. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 12How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 12
    Locate the "HKEY_USERS" file. You can find this file in the upper left-hand corner of the editor. Click to expand it, then click the folder labeled ".DEFAULT" in the resulting drop-down menu to do the same, followed by "Control Panel".
  6. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 13How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 13
    Locate and click on the "Desktop" folder to view its contents. Scroll through the right-hand side of the screen to find the value labeled ScreenSaveTimeOut, then double-click it. [3]
    1. In older versions of Windows, you will have to select a subfolder of "Desktop" labeled "Details" to view the ScreenSaveTimeOut file.
  7. How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 14How to Disable Windows Login Screensaver Picture 14
    Replace the current Value data number with your desired number of seconds. Editing this value will determine when the screensaver goes live; for example, changing the default setting of 900 to 1800 will change the time limit from 15 minutes to 30 minutes.
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