IDEA: screen saver that runs 24/7 regardless of user privileges?

[Jammo the OrganizedFellow]

Hello all.

I work for a wholesale giant here in TX.
I've recently moved to another department, Major Sales (TVs, computers, electronics, etc).
Not really a promotion, just something more along my likes and interests vs. cashiering

So, on my first day, my Supervisor asks me to config all the windows machines to run a screen saver 24/7, activation should be after 1 minute of idle time. Using the admin account, I can set the Power Options Properties to NEVER turn off the monitor, but we can't leave the machines ON administrator, so we set up a guest account.
Problem is, guests cant make changes to NEVER turn off the monitor. Default = 20 minutes.
Some of them are XP Pro, some Home, on both desktops and notebooks.


So I hope I am posting this in the right forum.
We don't need a Windows hack.
I'd like to use a small application that would allow the screen savor to run 24/7 regardless of administrative or guest account access.

[Deozaan]

I've never learned how to do this myself, but working for a few very large corporations they've seemed to have the admin accounts set the defaults for users/guests, which then other users/guests couldn't change.

[JavaJones]

I believe if you find the reg identifier for the user you can use the power management keys in the Desktop folder. Something like
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Control Panel\Desktop and there you will find the power time-out settings, etc. Where "S-1-5-18" is the registry identifier for the user you're configuring. Give it a shot...

- Oshyan

[jgpaiva]

I could make a script that would run 24/7 and launch the screensaver after some inactive time from the user. In your current config, would it be possible for the user to terminate it's process?

[f0dder]

I think what you want to look at is the windows policy group stuff... try start->run gpedit.msc and look around, you might just get lucky

[Jammo the OrganizedFellow]

I believe if you find the reg identifier for the user you can use the power management keys in the Desktop folder. Something like
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\Control Panel\Desktop and there you will find the power time-out settings, etc. Where "S-1-5-18" is the registry identifier for the user you're configuring. Give it a shot...

- Oshyan

-JavaJones (October 09, 2006, 11:44 PM)

although i love tinkering with the registry, they (management) wants/needs something easy to set up, and easy to revert to default when a display model is sold.

I think what you want to look at is the windows policy group stuff... try start->run gpedit.msc and look around, you might just get lucky

-f0dder (October 10, 2006, 02:58 PM)

thank you.
amazingly powerful, but only available on XP Pro, i think?

some units are running XP Home.

I could make a script that would run 24/7 and launch the screensaver after some inactive time from the user. In your current config, would it be possible for the user to terminate it's process?

-jgpaiva (October 10, 2006, 02:31 PM)

you mean, if a customer/shopper walks by, machine is running screen saver, customer moves mouse / presses keys ...

we need the screen saver to stop, allowing access to the computer.

the activation time should be configurable, ie:1 minute idle, 2 minutes, etc.
just like any other screen saver, it should turn off when activity occurs.

i TOTALLY FORGOT TO MENTION: they (management) has their own screen saver that they like to use.

would this be possible?
sounds more now to me like a windows setting, instead of an application issue.
but i've not been able to find much on getting past the Power Options Properties issue on all machines.

[f0dder]

jammo: I thought the .msc files were on home too, but I dunno. Anyway, all the .msc files do is set some registry entries etc., so you can set up stuff on a Pro machine, regmon, find the necessary entries, and export those to a .reg file - then it's as simple as double-clicking that file on the target machines

[Jammo the OrganizedFellow]

jammo: I thought the .msc files were on home too, but I dunno. Anyway, all the .msc files do is set some registry entries etc., so you can set up stuff on a Pro machine, regmon, find the necessary entries, and export those to a .reg file - then it's as simple as double-clicking that file on the target machines

-f0dder (October 10, 2006, 04:25 PM)

?hhmm?
wow. didnt know that.

researching methods now on my home machine which is XP Pro.
thanks for the tip.

[JavaJones]

Yeah, I looked at the general policy editor but you can't set most power settings with it. What you want to do then is just setup 2 .reg files, one to turn this functionality on via the registry, the other to turn it off in the same way. Then you can just double-click the relevant .reg and you're set.

- Oshyan

[lanux128]

i'm not an expert on this but would something like "Drop My Rights" help?

DropMyRights is a very simple application to help users who must run as an administrator run applications in a much-safer context—that of a non-administrator. It does this by taking the current user’s token, removing various privileges and SIDs from the token, and then using that token to start another process, such as Internet Explorer or Outlook. This tool works just as well with Mozilla’s Firefox, Eudora, or Lotus Notes e-mail.