Use the slide show screensaver across the network

[SteveR]

I want to setup all our workstations with the photo slide show screen saver and have the screen saver load the photos from a central location on the network.

We have XP boxes and server 2003.

I have came across this: How to create a domain-wide slideshow screensaver GPO by using pictures on each local machine ? : gpo, screensaver, pictures

But it doesn't make too much sense to me

Thanks for any help

[TimH]

I want to setup all our workstations with the photo slide show screen saver and have the screen saver load the photos from a central location on the network.

We've been running this for ages, simply tweak the registry settings for the default user on the workstations (using, script, reg file, whatever, preferable Policy Preferences) to set the slideshow saver, image location (unc path is OK) and timeout etc..

We simply add/remove notices as required in the single location.

tim

[SteveR]

We've been running this for ages, simply tweak the registry settings for the default user on the workstations (using, script, reg file, whatever, preferable Policy Preferences) to set the slideshow saver, image location (unc path is OK) and timeout etc..

We simply add/remove notices as required in the single location.

tim

Care to fill me in with a bit more info?

I am in regedit and checking the settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/control panel/ I can see the other screen saver entries but not slideshow saver, not sure how to go about this if I can't find the entry.

Thanks

EDIT: Nevermind I got it now!

[TimH]

Care to fill me in with a bit more info?

I am in regedit and checking the settings in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/control panel/ I can see the other screen saver entries but not slideshow saver, not sure how to go about this if I can't find the entry.

EDIT: Nevermind I got it now!

That's good, I think I did it by setting up the screensaver for myself then using the relevant values created. In fact we have a central screensaver which is normally the slideshow one but can be replaced by a themed/seasonal one simply by replacing screensaver.scr in the server share.

(You may need to muck about with server settings to allow anonymous access.)

tim

[SteveR]

Back again

This is driving me mad.

I discovered that XP uses a different screen saver for the logon, named logon.scr

I have tracked down the reg entry for logon.scr from this page How to change the Windows Logon screen saver in Windows XP and made the changes to point the logon screen saver to ssmypics.scr

After doing this the slide show screensaver does activate on the logon screen however I am faced with an error of "No pictures found in C:\windows\system32\config\systemprofile\my documents.

This is confusing because I have already configured ssmypics.scr in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ to point to the network share.

Any help would be appreciated

[SteveR]

Never mind done it now! What a hassle to get this going it needed three registry changes

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow]
"PaintInterval"=dword:00000000
"ChangeInterval"=dword:000088b8
"DisplayFilename"=dword:00000000
"MaxScreenPercent"=dword:00000064
"DisableTransitions"=dword:00000000
"AllowStretching"=dword:00000000
"AllowKeyboardControl"=dword:00000001
"MaxFailedFiles"=dword:000003e8
"MaxSuccessfulFiles"=dword:00010000
"MaxDirectories"=dword:000000c8
"ImageDirectory"="LOCATION OF PHOTOS FOLDER"

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow]
"PaintInterval"=dword:00000000
"ChangeInterval"=dword:00007530
"DisplayFilename"=dword:00000000
"MaxScreenPercent"=dword:00000064
"DisableTransitions"=dword:00000000
"AllowStretching"=dword:00000000
"AllowKeyboardControl"=dword:00000001
"MaxFailedFiles"=dword:000003e8
"MaxSuccessfulFiles"=dword:00010000
"MaxDirectories"=dword:000000c8
"ImageDirectory"="LOCATION OF PHOTOS FOLDER"

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"ScreenSaverIsSecure"="0"
"ScreenSaveTimeOut"="300"
"ScreenSaveActive"="1"
"SCRNSAVE.EXE"="LOCATION OF PHOTOS FOLDER"