Anyone using a screensaver for corporate comms?

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5by5Rex@reddit

We've used Snapcomms in the past. Screen savers and ticker tape.

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zanthius@reddit (OP)

That looks interesting... do you happen to remember the price point for that?

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5by5Rex@reddit

I wasn’t involved in Procurement of it, Not particularly cheap tho.

We’ve recently tried to write a clone of it ( “it’ll be cheaper to write our own version!” Senior leadership said!) and we wish we didn’t. The off the shelf one was much better

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the_tip@reddit

Do you mean a desktop background solution like "BGInfo"?

That seems more likely to be effective than a screensaver that depends on the user being idle, or screen being locked.

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zanthius@reddit (OP)

We have BGinfo now, but 90% of the PCs are kiosk and auto load a program on start, so no one sees the background unless we ask them to minimise everything to get their PC name so we can remote in.

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compu85@reddit

I did this in the past at a retail medial gig. Used a GPO to sync a folder of photos, and then another gpo to point the windows pictures screen saver at that folder. Worked great!

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spinydelta@reddit

Yes, both lock screen & desktop background.

I built a tool that allows our comms team to manage it all end to end. They can schedule when images are shown, pre-load as many as they want, set each image independently etc.

It's zero touch for us and meets all of the businesses requirements, so it's a win win.

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zanthius@reddit (OP)

Care to share your solution? Sounds interesting.

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i8noodles@reddit

we just do a background that changes every 3 or months with basically info like the IT line etc. enough that people pay attention but not so often they ignore it.

u can change backgrounda so people change it anyways but its something and l, most critically, not aome8i personally manage

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We are doing this atm with the lockscreens. I was against it, but as a PoC we had to do it. That PoC became permanent. The process is the comunication department supplies me with an image and for how long it has to be showed. I do the rest with powershell and a configuration profile in intune. I was expecting a lot of backlash from users bit so far the experience is positive

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GullibleDetective@reddit

But do the users heed it?

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alpha417@reddit

We're talking about the same users that don't flush, or wash their hands...amirite?

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vaxcruor@reddit

We had to do this, however, we put it back on corp comms to manage. We gave them a couple folders(ones for lock, one for wallpapers, they put an image file (s) in those and our nightly script checks those folders. If the file is new, we publish that to all the users lock screen and wallpapers.

And I have put my own wallpapers and lockscren image on my laptop then took away all permissions but my own.

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Reedy_Whisper_45@reddit

I (personally) prefer to let people manage their own workspace. If I have to look at something, I want to look at something I enjoy.

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Chemical_Outcome_241@reddit

We did a similar workflow where communication teams approves and deploys windows wallpaper and lock screen using power apps and some azure devOPs flow using on prem connectors

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Driftfreakz@reddit

Interesting! Any documentation about how you achieved/built this? I would rather cut myself out from being part of the proces :)

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Chemical_Outcome_241@reddit

There are a lot of moving parts but at a high level

User fills out an form in power apps and this data gets stored to an SharePoint list . The image is stored as raw binary in the list . Then there is an approval button on the SharePoint list when that is done this triggers an azure devOPs flow (when an sp list item gets changed and HTTP request gets sent)

The azure devOPs flow is just a simple flow that reads the sp List and generates the image using powershell and then copies them into a file share keeping the same name. All GPOs point to the same file name so with every GP update the new wallpaper gets deployed

I will see during work tomorrow if I can send the YAML for the az devOPs portion I’m not sure the best way to document the power apps though

I believe there are better ways to achieve this if we go for custom connectors in power apps though

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ZAFJB@reddit

I was expecting a lot of backlash from users

Pretty much because they never look at it.

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FromYoTown@reddit

We are looking at doing lockscreens via intune. So many people use weaponised ignorance regarding org wide comms.

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jmnugent@reddit

I’ve been in several companies over the years that wanted to do this. The pushback from Users was always strong. and after much discussion it was always decided that there are better (and more impactful ways to deliver information to people.

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DominusDraco@reddit

People still have screensavers? Why wouldnt you just have the screens turn off to save power when no one is using it?

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ethnicman1971@reddit

I used to work for a hospital and they did this.

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disclosure5@reddit

I cannot think of a format of communication more likely to be ignored than the screensaver that pops up while people are not at their desk.

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Apprehensive_Bat_980@reddit

Exactly, no shits would be given. Get a TV and put on some corp BS.

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missed_sla@reddit

I can. Emails from IT that contain planned outage times.

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Mysterious-Worth6529@reddit

Or emails from IT about security warnings and training.

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notarealaccount223@reddit

See I use the corporate emails that users think is phishing to highlight the red flags while I'm telling them it is a legit message.

Tend to get at least a few replies.

"If you flagged this as phishing, great job, here are the red flags, but in this case it was legit. So keep flagging it as phishing maybe HQ will figure it out at some point"

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burnte@reddit

Yep, the least effective form of communication is clearly written emails. The most reliable is whispered rumors. I will literally start rumors about upcoming upgrades/downtimes in order to get people to get curious and read the email. Works so well it's sad.

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theEvilQuesadilla@reddit

Ah but you're forgetting that they still won't be read

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oppositetoup@reddit

Well, the idea is that they see it when they come back... But you are right, it'll be just as ignored

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424f42_424f42@reddit

Good be compliant about it ... Sorry, can't work, can't touch anything, need to wait for the screen saver to read the important information.

Oops touched my mouse, another 15 minutes.

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YouDoNotKnowMeSir@reddit

Lock Screen or teams/slack chatbot

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cmorgasm@reddit

We've been asked to do a similar task, but not for screensaver. Instead, we were asked for unique/dynamic options for background and lockscreen. We hate the idea. Marketing hates the idea. Leadership loves it. So we lost and made a PoC that pulls the image out of Azure. I'm interested in the user in this thread who said they save the image as raw binary in a SP list then re-generated via PS, since that'd be a nicer approach.

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mfinnigan@reddit

it was a useless idea in 1996, which was ~~10~~ 30 years ago

https://www.jwz.org/gruntle/savers.html

And the best part of it is that it displays all this great data... when you're not there! It is truly one of the stupidest ideas since the car doors that opened out with the hinge at the back. Of course, if you're like most of the zombies in the marketing departments at every place I've ever worked, you probably spend most of the day watching your screensaver while dreaming up ways to kill the company and run, so maybe that's exactly the target market they're going for.

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D3xbot@reddit

We used to just include a folder in Public Photos with glamor shots of campus and set that as the default screensaver… Then Windows and macOS started really de-emphasizing screensavers for energy savings purposes and we figured “eh, does anyone really even look at that?”

9 years later and nobody has asked where the photo screensaver went.

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Mister_Brevity@reddit

People will just avoid looking at it. Everywhere I’ve ever worked with any form of digital signage always winds up with people actively avoiding looking at it.

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literahcola@reddit

We used Netpresenter at my last place. IT deployed the agents and managed the targeting (we did it by subnet) and Marketing managed the content. Seemed to work out really well, but if you don't have a lot of idle desktops where people can see the content as they walk by it doesn't really make sense.

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Sunsparc@reddit

We have a client requirement to do it, so we did. We use it for some minor training reinforcement. How to spot a phishing email, how to change your password, how to contact IT properly by submitting a ticket, etc.

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GardenWeasel67@reddit

Don't. It's a maintenance nightmare.

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dai_webb@reddit

I agree that a screensaver is really not the right vehicle for internal comms.

We have really embraced Viva Engage for a lot of internal comms, and it works pretty well, but we do have multiple channels to get the same messages out as not everyone uses the same thing:

News articles on the SharePoint home page.
Viva Engage
TVs around the office showing nicely animated and attractive slides/videos (produced by the marketing team)

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Ballaholic09@reddit

We use Alertus to deliver customizable banners/notifications to our endpoints. No idea on the cost, but it works great.

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unclescar@reddit

Lockscreens and wallpapers shouldn't contain any corporate branding, information or instructions.
Heck neither should ID badges.

It's just bad security practice, this along with Branded Asset Tag's on laptops give me the fear.

Imagine a situation where a staff member loses a laptop and, said laptop has your corporate branding on the lock screen, a phone number to call for IT help and they know the persons name.

Quick facebook search and they've probably got enough information to socially engineer your helpdesk.

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webtechmonkey@reddit

What’s the rationale for not having company branding on ID badges? Isn’t that the entire point, to glance at a badge and say “yep, this person works at our company”

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unclescar@reddit

Because they grant access to your facilities, branded passes increase the risk of physical breach.

Yes, I'm unduly paranoid but I've been red teamed so many times I'm just jaded

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MalletNGrease@reddit

Or they have enough information to return it sooner. Which is multitudes more likely to happen.

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a60v@reddit

This is the dumbest idea that I have heard in a while. Our marketing department would probably love it.

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Flashy_Resolution500@reddit

No. We do use our wallpaper to display important phone numbers an employee might need like HR and the IT service desk

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ThatOldGuyWhoDrinks@reddit

This is what we do. It works really well and because we have done this for so long users don’t get annoyed about it because they are used to it.

We also make sure the wallpapers are different- one would ve light colour and the next dark to make the change obvious

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nayhem_jr@reddit

Instructions how to use the password reset tool

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Spagman_Aus@reddit

we don't mess with wallpapers, we let staff pick their own - but we have a lock screen image that's branded with some critical info on it. nothing that changes often though.

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nico282@reddit

I would really hate if IT changed my wallpaper. Especially if it's something with writing on it that may confuse with the icons on the desktop.

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sambodia85@reddit

We had a marketing team that thought this was a great idea. We never got the chance to shoot it down because the CEO got in first. During the presentation he said “if staff are working they should never see the desktop.”

I miss that CEO.

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Reedy_Whisper_45@reddit

At my former employer.....

We had a powerpoint deck exported to images, then a group policy that set the screensaver to slideshow and pointed it at the slideshow directory.

I hated it, because I had to maintain it. The powerpoint was also put onto the lunchroom TVs.

It's viable, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Better to go someplace where people hang out (like the lunchroom) and put on a web-based slideshow app. I'm currently using one (won't try to promote it, but will tell if asked). It works very well, and we now have 7 displays going. One int the lunchroom, one in the visitors' conference room, and 5 out in the shop.

One thing I would strongly recommend - put some play into it. Joke of the Day gets people LOOKING at it. The Fish Cam helps, too.

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shikkonin@reddit

Waste of money, energy and hardware.

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bobdvb@reddit

We have this for awareness items. You have to keep the messaging simple and visual, don't use more than a few words and an image. You can use it for safety awareness, mental health, etc. but it's a call to action, a prompt, not actually information.

It's useful if it's for a long campaign, where you can drill in a reminder with ambient memories and if you already encourage people to lock their screens when they're not at their desk it's going to be around them at the office.

Basically they'll look at it for a few seconds before they unlock, but their focus isn't on that, it's on getting logged back in. They'll see it around the office on locked screens, but they're not looking directly at it.

It's an ambient advert, not a notice board.

If Corp Comms can understand that concept then it'll work, if you try and put in too much information then you're wasting your time.

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GremlinNZ@reddit

Screensaver, lock screen and wallpaper (bginfo on the wallpaper as well).

Does kinda help set a tone that it's not their personal toy to do as they wish, avoids using anything objectionable etc etc.

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Grandcanyonsouthrim@reddit

We heard wind of this and quickly got HSE and CEO to sign off on black screen saver for green IT.

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dav3n@reddit

Yep, used to get constant requests to update the damn thing compete with schedules we had to follow, some months there were 10+ changes (just pulled to file from a file share via GPO), we ended up spinning up an Azure blob and gave a guy a copy of Irfanview, now they manage it themselves and Intune does the updating.

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hkeycurrentuser@reddit

Nope nope nope nope nope.

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michalakos@reddit

We do it but not for important comms. Usually for “ads” for company events like pride month, wellness weeks, summer parties, stuff like that.

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jrodsf@reddit

We use it for exactly this reason as well. I wrote a script to sync slides for it (via BITS) from a network share defined in the registry so different sites can even have their own set. The communications dept at each site is in charge of updating the slides for their site, plus we have a few that go out to the enterprise.

It works great and is virtually zero maintenance for us.

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ZAFJB@reddit

No.

By definition screen locks when nobody is there
Screens go black because they enter power save

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SMYLTY@reddit

Lock screen was recently changed from standard windows one to a corporate image, I was shocked at how nice it looked. Heard lots of positive feedback. Some big wig complained saying it was too distracting and it was removed.

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Royal_Bird_6328@reddit

I wouldn’t bother, something goes wrong then or if the image looks distorted you’ve opened a can of worms trying to fix it when other important things need fixing

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Sasataf12@reddit

We don't do this. Screensaver's are designed to run when the machine is unattended. So if you're trying to increase visibility of your comms, using the screensaver isn't a good way to do it.

I recommend:

a Slack or Teams channel for announcements
digital signage around the office/premises

Another thing to try is asking users how they (like to) consume information.

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BlueClouds01@reddit

Our company deploys lock screen images with info that changes every month. Every month the comms team sends the image to us and it gets deployed to all the devices via Intune. I doubt anyone reads it though, as the pictures were terrible. Last month they had to plaster the portrait of an old director that passed away last month in commemoration of their passing as the lockscreen picture, and we had to basically look at their face every time we login for the entire month.

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yawningcat@reddit

We have this and it's absolutely useless and ugly.

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wrootlt@reddit

We had this on my last job, but there was also a power setting that would make screen go black when you lock it. So, you would only see it if you do something outside PC and after 10 min it locks on your own. It would still turn off monitor after a few minutes. Occasionally I would see something, but they were also using slideshow with 3-5 slides. It would rotate too quickly to read. Anyway, it looked more like a waste of effort.

On my current job they use lock screen for quarter results, marketing slogans, etc. I think it works better. It is one image and they rotate it every few weeks or so. Use good graphics, so it looks cool, lime winter themed one for Christmas period ir orange for Fall. Again, you only briefly see it when laptop boots and if you wake your PC by jiggling mouse. Because screen goes black quickly after locking as well.

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Just one more stupid thing to manage.

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ORA2J@reddit

You could totally do it via the photo screensaver. Should be just a couple GPO parameters and a file on a shared drive. Plenty of tutorials online.

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ORA2J@reddit

https://www.sabercom.co.uk/screensaver-group-policy/

Seems like this is about exactly what you're looking for.