Hello all, I'm trying to get my Windows 7 to enable the screen saver grace period and it's giving me quite a bit of trouble. I've done a couple of hours worth of research and several of testing and retesting. Here are the various solutions I've tried: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/639e88eb-c9c3-4a8e-951e-4c6b5a852b6f http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349797(WS.10).aspx#BKMK_13 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverGP/thread/10385cd5-47a1-42f7-aacd-9c2e4e1a6a41/ http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/37ee5887-8b18-4514-b0f5-e81e60b6ccf4 http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/62523-increase-screen-saver-grace-period.html and others... If you click through on the above links, they point toward the creation of a registry entry called 'ScreenSaverGracePeriod'. Some of the articles specify that it should by a REG_SZ item and others a DWORD (decimal) item. For Windows 7, neither works (at least in my case). I've actually tested every registry type available (String, Binary, DWORD, QWORD, Multi-String, and Expandable String). There are also cases where the original poster will say that the fix took and then disappeared when they reconnected to their workgroup. So... I'm a home/personal user who has tried the registry-entry method above. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a setting for making sure I'm removed from workgroups I'm unknowingly the administrator for? Are there any third-party programs (for Windows 7) that can take care of this? Thanks for the help!!

Hi, The steps to change the registry key value are also available on Windows 7 system. You may check the suggestions below: 1. please change the ScreenSaverGracePeriod entry to a value from 0 to 255; Please back up the registry key before changing the registry keys: · Backup registry key ================== a. Click Start menu, click Run, input "REGEDIT" (without quotation marks) in the Search box and press Enter. (Click Yes when User Account Control message pops up.) b. Navigate to the following registry key by expanding the "+" beside the registry tree in the left pane: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon c. Right click on "Winlogon", click "Export"; please name the file as "RegBackup" (without quotation marks) and then save it to the C:\ drive as a backup. Note: In case we need to undo the modification, we can double click this RegBackup.reg file to restore the registry key. After that, please take the steps below to modify the registry key value: 1). Click Start menu, click Run, input "REGEDIT" (without quotation marks) in the Search box and press Enter. (Click Yes when User Account Control message pops up.) 2). Navigate to the following registry key by expanding the "+" beside the registry tree in the left pane: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon 3). Locate the “ScreenSaverGracePeriod” on the right panel and double click it 4). Please change the value from 0 to 255 as you want. After that, please restart the computer to test this issue. 2. Please boot the computer in Safe Mode and Clean Boot to check if it works properly; 3. Please check if there is any group policy to prevent the settings. You may check if the "Password protect the screen saver" Group Policy setting is correct. Use your Windows password for your screen saver password The "Password protect the screen saver" Group Policy setting is set in the following registry entry: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop\ScreenSaverIsSecure When the value is set to 0 (zero), password protection for the screen saver is turned off. When the value is set to 1, password protection for the screen saver is turned on. 4. Please create a new user account to test the issue. Regards, Sabrina Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

How is this the answer? Tyrponok tried variations of this and it did not work. Besides that value is not there by default and you did not say what type it was if one wanted to create it as the references suggest different value types. Does "ScreenSaverGracePeriod" work for Windows 7 or not and does it depend on GP somehow where it is ignored? I can't get it to work either. Please be specific. Thanks, Dave