Windows 7 Screen Saver Timeout Broken when applied through GPO.
Hello, I have a 2003 domain with 2 DCs and about 40 clients. Most of the clients are Windows XP and we are migrating to Windows 7. I have a 2008 R2 member server set up so I can use the 2008 GPO Manager and RSAT to manage GPO settings for the Windows 7 clients. I am experiencing a problem with a GPO and my Windows 7 clients. I have the screen saver set to blank the screen and lock after 15 minutes., requiring a password to unlock. Everything works just fine on the Windows XP clients. However, the Windows 7 clients never lock, the screensaver never kicks in. I can see with gpresult and in the Windows 7 registry that all the settings are being applied. When I change something in the GPO and run gpupdate /force on the client, the setting apply in the Win 7 registry just fine. I can also see in the "Persoinalization" control panel that all the settings are correct (and greyed out as they are managed through GPO) and change with GPO updates. However, it just never kicks in. I have made sure the scrnsave.scr is valid and even tried the direct path to the file. Nothing works. The only way I can get it to work is to set the timeout in the GPO to "not configured", which naturally frees up the timeout field in the control panel, and then have the user set the timeout themselves. Here are my GPO settings: USER CONFIGURATION->ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES->CONTROL PANEL->PERSONALIZATION: - Enable Screen Save: Enabled - Prevent changing screen saver: Disabled - Password protect screen saver: Enabled - Screen Saver Timeout: Enabled, 900 seconds - Force specific screen saver: Enabled, scrnsave.scr Thanks in advance, Nikhil
November 3rd, 2010 10:42am

Hi Nikhil, Thanks for the post! I would like to figure out these: - Is there any other group policy conflicting with the Windows 7 computers? - Are the Windows XP and Windows 7 computers in the same OU? If they’re not in the same OU, I recommend you create the Group Policy like following: Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Group Plicy -User Group Policy loopback processing mode (Merge Mode) Also set the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop ScreenSaveActive value=1 ScreenSaverIsSecure value=1 Regards, MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | 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.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 5th, 2010 6:05am

There are no other group policies in our environemnt. Both XP and Windwos 7 clients are in the same OU. Yes, the registry keys are set as directed. Again, everything looks fine. Even the Control Panel reflects my GPO settings and update as I chaneg the GPO. Its just that the GPO never kick in. Is there a tool I can use to monitor the countdown timer that trigger the system to actiuvate the screen saver? Maybe there is a process running in the backround that is resetting the timer?
November 10th, 2010 2:03pm

We are experiencing this issue right now. The problem we see is this: Group Policy is set to apply the following changes: Password Protect The Screen Saver - Enabled Screen Saver Timeout (900 seconds) - Enabled As Microsoft states in this article: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee617164%28WS.10%29.aspx This policy setting allows you to lock the system. If you enable this policy setting, the system locks at a user-defined interval. This policy setting is effective even when no screen saver is selected. If you enable this policy setting with the Enable screen saver policy setting, you ensure that the system lock will work even when no screen saver is selected. The problem appears to be related to the GPO not actually changing the timeout period even though it shows it has been changed in the GUI. Our experience with this is as follows: If a user has previously selected a screensaver and set their timeout to 3 minutes for example, the GUI will reflect the change of 15 minutes as applied through GPO, but after 3 minutes, the screen will lock instead of the 15 minutes established in the GPO. We have been around and around with this for the last 2 days and nothing seems to alter this functionality. We have tried modifying reg keys as well with no luck.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 10th, 2010 3:05pm

I think I may have just found something, it is very obscure, but I this did the trick on two machine so far... The Windows 7 image I deployed to my PCs was originally built and sysprepped in VMWare. The VMWare tools were installed on the image. After I removed VMWare tools on the PCs, the screensaver GPO began working. VMWare tools cannot be uninstalled unless you are in a virtual machine, it spits out an error when trying to uninstall. So, I had to manually uninstall the tools be removing registry keys, system files, program files , and services related to VMWare. Once I did this, the screensaver GPO began working.
November 10th, 2010 3:47pm

Hi, Glad to hear you find the culprit. Also thanks for the sharing, it can be beneficial to other communities. Regards, MiyaThis posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. | 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.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 10th, 2010 10:08pm

I just wanted to add that I had this issue and determined it was the mouse. Wireless MS mouse using default HID-compliant driver and the screensaver will not engage. Install latest intellipoint drivers and the issue is resolved. Hope this helps somebody out there resolve this issue.
February 28th, 2011 2:45am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics