Want to change the delay before your screensaver kicks in? Follow our handy how-to steps
Screensavers, which prevented 'ghosting' or 'burn-in', used to be essential back when monitors were big clunky CRT devices. The modern flatscreen monitors that we use with desktops and on laptop panels don't suffer from ghosting, but Windows still includes screensavers that would be familiar to a time-traveller visiting us now from the 1990s.
You don't need to use one, but if you do, you can adjust how long it is before it kicks in, or even turn it off altogether.
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To open the screensaver control box, click the Windows Start button. In the search box, type screensaver and then click on Change screen saver.
This is one of the few settings that's still managed via the Control Panel, so instead of the increasingly familiar Windows 10 Settings app opening, you'll see a smaller box with the screensaver settings pop up.
You can change the length of time before it appears by using the adjust arrows next to the Wait box to increase or decrease the minutes.
Setting the picture to None stops it from appearing at all.
A screensaver will prevent passers-by seeing what you've been working on if you haven't been using your PC for a few minutes, but for added security, we recommend ticking the On resume, display logon screen box. That means you'll have to type in your password to get back to work, but it's good security practice always to lock your screen when you're not using it, especially if you're somewhere other people could see the screen.