Monitors that are running screensavers have a tendency to consume the same amount of power as they would if they were running normally. This can be as little as a few watts for small LCD monitors, to as much as several hundred for the much larger plasma displays.

The more modern computers have the ability to switch the monitor into a lower power mode and blank the screen altogether. This power saving mode for computer monitors is commonly an integral part of the power management options that is supported in most of these modern operating systems, including the computer hardware and the monitor.

By using a screensaver on a flat panel or LCD screen, users will not have to power down as the screen has the ability to reduce the display’s life. Anyone who has a screensaver on a computer that he/she just wants to get rid of should pay attention to this. Here is a simple guide to turning off the screen saver in Windows XP.how to turn the screensaver off in windows xp

Screensavers can actually waste power. This is because they are able to prevent the computer from going into the lower power state and they sometimes cause the CPU and GPU to do more calculations, which keeps the hard disk working for longer than if the computer were idle.

Windows XP has the ability to detect the installation of a virus via the screensaver. If the screensaver is being downloaded, it will warn the user before downloading the file. It is believed that screensavers and free screensavers were amongst the most likely search terms to return links to malware or viruses.

Turning Off the Screensaver in Windows XP

Begin by logging into the computer administrator’s account. If you are one of the users on your computer, then your default login name should also have administrative privileges.

Next, click START

  • Then click Run.
  • Type ‘regedit’ into the text box that appears.
  • Press enter. This will bring up the Registry Editor.

Once in the Registery Editor

  • Double click the HKEY_USERS folder on the window’s left
  • Click DEFAULT
  • Click CONTROL PANEL
  • Click DESKTOP

Scroll down until the “ScreenSaveActive” and “ScreenSaveTimeOut” values appear. When they appear, set the “ScreenSaveActive” value and the “ScreenSavetimeOut” value to zero. Do this by double clicking the words and entering the number 0 in the pop-up window that appears.

Finally, close the Registry Editor

Be sure to edit the right values.

Check to see if the screensaver has been turned off.