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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-17T11:13:07+00:00

I am suffering from unsecured screen saver in Windows 7. When I turned off

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I am suffering from unsecured screen saver in Windows 7. When I turned off “On resume, display logon screen” option and changed ScreenSaverIsSecure from 1 to 0. Adobe flash-based *.scr displays “Code 5: Access is denied.” error message on Default desktop even though I am on another desktop window and the screen saver does not start. If ScreenSaverIsSecure is set to 1, the screen saver works regardless of desktop window. This is different from Windows XP.

Another test on this was I set the screen saver to “3D text” and I was on another desktop. “3D text” screen saver has started on Default desktop but it says “Incompatible with Direct3D” error.

Test condition:

  • OS: Windows 7 x64 Pro SP1
  • Screen saver timeout: 1min
  • Screen saver: 3D text
  • Uncheck “On resume, display logon screen”. Need to make sure ScreenSaverIsSecure is 0 (0 means do not ask password on resume)
    • Registry location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Control Panel\Desktop
  • Desktops.exe included in SysInternal tools.

Test procedures:
– Run Desktops.exe and switch to #2 desktop
– Wait 1min for screen saver and you could not see screen saver on #2 desktop after more than 1min elapsed.
– Switch to #1 desktop (Default) and see “Incompatible with Direct3D” error message instead of 3D text message you defined in Screen Saver setting.

If you have a flash screen saver, you will see “Code 5 error: Access is denied.” error message and you need to click to continue. ALT+F4 required to escape from screen saver. Strange…

Anyone who can assist on this?
Thank you in advance.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The symptoms you describe are consistent with a badly coded screensaver. It would appear that the screensaver is attempting to access an inactive desktop. I expect it was written without consideration for the possibility of there being multiple desktops in the interactive session.

    There’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t fix the screensaver since you didn’t code it. The obvious workarounds are:

    • Enable the On resume, display logon screen option.
    • Stop using multiple desktops.
    • Choose a different screensaver, one that handles multiple desktops correctly.

    Of these the lask option would be my choice.

    One final point. I don’t see any Flash here. That screensaver uses DirectX to render text.

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