How to Make Windows Start the Screensaver Immediately When Locked

Are you one of those people that loves to see the screensaver come on when you get up from your computer? Here’s an easy way to make the screensaver show up as soon as you lock your PC.

To lock your computer, if you’ve never tried it, just use the WIN + L shortcut key combination, and your computer will be locked – you’ll have to enter the password to get back in. It’s a really good idea to do so at work, or if your friends are the type that will mess with your PC while you’re in the other room.

You can also create a shortcut that will lock your computer, if you are the type of user that prefers using a mouse to tediously do things instead of a nearly-instant shortcut key. Just paste this into the location box when creating the shortcut:

rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

Note: according to some very technical documentation, it’s possibly not a good idea to create shortcuts to lock the desktop. Plus, again, WIN + L is a much better solution.

Now that you know how to lock your PC, it’s time to make sure your screensaver is enabled. If it already is enabled, then skip down a bit.

Right-click on the desktop, choose Personalize, and then click on Screen Saver on the bottom right-hand side of the window.