Screen saver question

In response to a previous post entitled Setting a default screen saver for all Windows 200x/XP users, a question was posted concerning the marquee screen saver.

When I apply ssmarque the users get blank black screen. Any ideas on how to get the text I specified to work?

The issue with that screen saver is the text field you modify to show what you want to scroll across the screen. The text you enter is saved in the following registry location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Marquee

The key it is saved to, in the right-side pane, is Text. Because this is different for every user that longs on, it must be modified each time a new person logs on to the computer. In order to do that, you will have to create a logon script that will modify that key with the text you want to use.

There is another registry entry located at:

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Marquee

This is supposed to be the default settings for the marquee screen saver but I could not get the text there to stay if I rebooted. From what I have read, that gets changed with what is held in HKEY_CURRENT_USER tree. No guarantees on that explanation, though.

Another option would be to create your own screen saver, place it on a network share and set that as the default screen savers for all computers logging on to the network. This is the option used by many retail businesses in order to advertise products/services on their computer screen. There are many programs available that make this easy to do.

Anyone else have a suggestion on how to accomplish this task or what the logon script would look like? A reboot is not necessary if the registry key is changed (i.e. the text will show up if the key is modified).

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best. -Henry Van Dyke

21.Oct.05 General, Tech Tip, Technology