Hello Stevecarroll
This is a rather interesting question - how do you disable
screensavers on specific machines when all the users on a network have
screensavers activated? It's something of a puzzler, and I have
enjoyed doing some research on the actions involved.
I have come up with three main aproaches:
Write/use a small program that goes into the Startup to disable
screensavers
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If you or someone in your organisation has VB programming experience,
you might be able to write a small program that goes into the startup
folder, or into the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run
registry key (To prevent unauthorised tampering) of those machines
that disables the screensavers. Most pre-made programs contain
several other features, so I felt it best to point to a way of
disabling the screensaver through code and several of these
pre-written programs so you could make your own choice.
Zarr's VB Zone - Disabling Screensavers
http://www.zarr.net/vb/download/codedetail.asp?code=210 - Free
Contains a code snippet that will disable the Screensaver through an
API call. VB code.
Total Control Library
http://www.tfn.net/~whanson/total_control_library.htm - US $30
This appears to be a set of .DLL files that can be linked into
existing programs an allows you to do several things, including enable
and disable the screensaver.
Turn It On!
http://davlar.krasnodar.ru/en/turniton.html - Free
This is a systray application that enables you to launch, tune,
enable, and disable the screensavers. In your circumstances this
would most likely be a non-possibility due to the potential for
tampering by unauthorised users. However, I have included it in the
potential that you can use it.
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Modify the registry to preven the Login.scr screensaver running.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Since you mentioned that you thought it was the login screensaver that
was running on that machine, modifying the registry to prevent the
login screensaver from running could prevent the screensaver from
appearing as default.
Windows Registry Guide - Preventing the Logon Screensaver from
Launching
http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/112/
From the website:
"Key: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
Value Name: ScreenSaveActive
Data Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 =enabled)"
--
Disable Screensaver through patching the Registry
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If your security protocol allows modification of the registry through
.reg files, you can modify the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control
Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaveActive key to be equal to "0" to prevent the
screensaver from activating.
The reg file would need to contain something like the following:
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[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaveActive"="0"
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Security on NT Screensavers
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As an aside to your problem, while I was searching I found the
following safety-lab.com security alert which might be of be of note
regarding screensavers
The Safety Lab - NT Screensaver Code Selection Vulnerability
http://www.safety-lab.com/audits/showauditinfo.pl?lang=en&num=736
From the website:
"If a user selects a executable as their screen saver, this code can
be forced to run as system." Obviously this could potentially be a
security hazard.
--
I hope these three avenues of exploration lead to a result that allows
you to set your projection machines up without the screensaver
appearing.
Search Methodology:
NT4 "Disable Screensaver"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=NT4+%22disable+screensaver%22
"Disable Screensaver"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22disable+screensaver%22
Screensaver Registry
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=screensaver+registry
screensaver NT4 registry
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=screensaver+NT4+registry
LazerFX |
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