Next, go to Policy > User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization.

This can be either a new GPO or an existing GPO that may already have other settings you want applied to all of your users.

First off, start with a Group Policy Object (GPO) that is linked to the OU where your user accounts are located in Active Directory. So, back to basics: setting a default screen saver with settings that will be compatible with changes in Windows 7 and with your existing Windows XP and Vista clients. If you’re still using logon.scr as your default forced screen saver and you’ve started deploying Windows 7, you have users out there without a default screen saver. If a user were to leave his office with his workstation unlocked and the door wide open, a malicious person would have access to everything that the unwitting user left open: files, applications, e-mail, etc.

In many environments, securing logon sessions is very important… especially if you have to deal with HIPAA, FERPA, or any of the other myriad of government regulations (or jumpy Information Security departments) that are out there. If a user logs into Windows 7 and has logon.scr set as a forced screen saver in Group Policy, his default screen saver will be set to (None) and, because it is a Group Policy, the user will be unable to change this setting.