Logon screen saver won't kick in with Legal Notice showing

[clh]

This is in a business with Windows XP Pro SP2. We use the old NT style login
instead of the "Welcome" screen. Our Information Security people also
require us to set a "Legal Notice" (using the local policy setting) that
displays before the login dialog appears. The user then has to click OK or
press Enter on the Legal Notice screen to get the login dialog.

The problem is that while this Legal Notice is displayed, the screen saver
refuses to kick in. We don't have our users shut down at night because we
have automated patch and software deployment that runs over night, so we just
tell users to "logoff" which returns them to the Legal Notice. The problem
is that we're getting monitors with this Legal Notice burned in to them.

If we click OK or press Enter on the Legal Notice and leave at the login
dialog the screen saver kicks in just fine. But as long as the Legal Notice
stays up the screen saver will not kick in.

Is there a solution to get the screen saver to kick in while the Legal
Notice is displayed?

Thank you.

 

[Bob I]

Why not set the BIOS to set the monitor to standby or off?

 

[clh]

I don't know enough about it to be sure, but I always thought that setting
things like that in BIOS could cause conflicts with the Windows power
settings. Is that not true?

 

[Bob I]

The operative word is "might" and you aren't turning off the monitor in
Windows.

 

[clh]

We do have the Windows power settings for the user to turn off the monitor
after like 20 minutes. I don't want the BIOS to interfere with it after the
user is logged in.

In any case, the more I think about it a BIOS change isn't feasible. We're
talking a couple thousand computers. If it can't be part of our Windows
deployment image and/or fixed through something like a script for existing
machines it isn't going to happen.

Just seems like a general flaw in Windows to not allow the screen saver to
kick in with the legal notice up. Unless there was a specific reason to make
it this way that someone can explain to me.

Thanks again!

 

[HeyBub]

This is in a business with Windows XP Pro SP2. We use the old NT
style login instead of the "Welcome" screen. Our Information
Security people also require us to set a "Legal Notice" (using the
local policy setting) that displays before the login dialog appears.
The user then has to click OK or press Enter on the Legal Notice
screen to get the login dialog.

The problem is that while this Legal Notice is displayed, the screen
saver refuses to kick in. We don't have our users shut down at night
because we have automated patch and software deployment that runs
over night, so we just tell users to "logoff" which returns them to
the Legal Notice. The problem is that we're getting monitors with
this Legal Notice burned in to them.

If we click OK or press Enter on the Legal Notice and leave at the
login dialog the screen saver kicks in just fine. But as long as the
Legal Notice stays up the screen saver will not kick in.

Is there a solution to get the screen saver to kick in while the Legal
Notice is displayed?

"Burned in?"

I didn't think it was possible to "burn in" an image on a VGA with a GUI.

Oh, well. It's your Information Security's problem. Tell 'em you want the
legal disclaimer to move around a bit, or a new set of monitors will come
from their budget.

 

[xxx_]

Enable "require users the press ctrl + alt + del". This means that the legal
notice will only be shown after the user presses ctrl + alt + del. The
screensaver will kick in at "Press ctrl + alt + del to begin".

 

[clh]

"Burned in?"

I didn't think it was possible to "burn in" an image on a VGA with a GUI.

Oh, well. It's your Information Security's problem. Tell 'em you want the
legal disclaimer to move around a bit, or a new set of monitors will come
from their budget.

Yep, it's possible to burn in. Keep in mind that this thing appears on the
screen all night every night.

The "Legal Notice" is a built-in Windows Local Policy, not something we
added. Since it's built-in to Windows, we have no way to modify it to get it
to move around.

 

[clh]

We used to have that and got rid of it a couple years ago. From an end users
standpoint everyone is much happier without it (except for the screen burn-in
we're getting from the legal notice).