Screen Savers

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Can someone tell me where Windows 7 keeps its screen savers. I would like to be able to put a shortcut on my desktop so that I can click it and activate the screen saver when I know I am going to leave my computer for a while, instead of having to wait for it to cut in after a time delay. Thanks.

Ron M

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In c:windowssystem32. Do a search for *.scr

While we are on the subject of screen savers, anyone know why Win7 took a big step backwards with the Slide Show screen saver? I kind if liked the one on Vista, it at least showed a little bit of creativity.

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In c:windowssystem32. Do a search for *.scr

While we are on the subject of screen savers, anyone know why Win7 took a big step backwards with the Slide Show screen saver? I kind if liked the one on Vista, it at least showed a little bit of creativity.

Peter, thanks for the insight. I am running Windows 7 – 64 bit. When I open up the “explorer”, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to do a Search. Any insight as to how this happens, or am I not using the right tools? Thanks.

Ron M

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When I open up the “explorer”, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to do a Search. Any insight as to how this happens, or am I not using the right tools?

With Windows Explorer in the search box at the top right just start typing in your search term (i.e. *.scr).

Joe

--Joe

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Go to Start Menu. In “Search programss and files space “, type screensaver. Right click and drag “Change screen saver” to desktop and release. Select “create shortcuts here”. Also, you can control the waiting period for your screen saver before it starts.

Hope this helps.

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Teresa, your instructions are for the ScreenSaver Control Panel. He wants to create a shortcut to the actual screen saver file. This is handy if the screen saver is set to require a password; you can now instantly start the screen saver so others can’t access your files or desktop if you step out for a minute. If your screen saver is set to show photos it’s nice to start it when you want. Personally I prefer not having a password on the screen saver, I just use Win+L to lock the work station.

On a side note, the freeware Picasa program installs a ‘Google Photo Screen Saver’ that works very well, and can display from multiple folders on your PC, and from your Picasa online albums. If you have dual monitors it displays a different photo on each. A nice feature is the ability to hit the space bar to bring up a menu to go back to the previous pictures (our screen saver is always flipping through vacation photos, so it’s not uncommon to return to a forgotten pic for a better look or to show others!)

Cheers,

Nathan

Go to Start Menu. In “Search programss and files space “, type screensaver. Right click and drag “Change screen saver” to desktop and release. Select “create shortcuts here”. Also, you can control the waiting period for your screen saver before it starts.

Hope this helps.

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Joe, I found the screensavers, Thank you. Now it says I need ” some type of permission” from a “Trusted Installer” to move it to my desktop or “make chanfges in this file”. Now what? I used to be able to do this in XP and previous versions, why the Security type stuff. Is there somewhere I could go and get Screen Savers where I become the “Trusted Installer” and then I could put one of these on my desktop? Maybe Microsoft itself, or TUCOWS?

Ron M

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Joe, I found the screensavers, Thank you. Now it says I need ” some type of permission” from a “Trusted Installer” to move it to my desktop or “make chanfges in this file”. Now what? I used to be able to do this in XP and previous versions, why the Security type stuff. Is there somewhere I could go and get Screen Savers where I become the “Trusted Installer” and then I could put one of these on my desktop? Maybe Microsoft itself, or TUCOWS?

Don’t move the file, copy it. “Trusted Installer” was introduced in Vista as a way to improve security. It helps to keep system files from being arbitrarily changed, deleted, or replaced. From Security: New ACLs Improve Security in Windows Vista – “The Trusted Installer is actually a service, not a user, even though you see permissions granted to it all over the file system. Service hardening allows each service to be treated as a full-fledged security principal that can be assigned permissions just like any other user.”

If you think you really need to move it instead of just copying it you need to take ownership of the file. See Windows 7 Take Ownership & Grant Permissions to Access Files & Folder for details.

Joe

--Joe

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Don’t move or copy the *.scr file – instead create a shortcut on the desktop. To do this, drag the scr file to the desktop while holding the right mouse button. When you let go of the button a menu pops up asking what to do, choose create shortcut.

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Another nifty way is to right click on the Screen Saver (or any) file and choose Send To… and then Desktop (Create Shortcut).

As Peter said, right click and drag is a great way to work with files so you get options when you drop them. I try and teach people to use this method instead of a normal drag on drop so they know explicitly what they’re doing, especially when working between drives (a drag and drop moves files on same drive but copies between drives)

Nathan

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Joe, Peter, Nathan, thanks for your help and very precise instructions – IT WORKED – and I learned something new – thanks for that too. I now have a shortcut to a screensaver on my desktop and also know how to put other shortcuts on it as well.

Ron M.

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