When you open the Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings dialog, theme controls may be missing and the message "This computer’s video card can’t play themes" is displayed. You might be knowing that the themes in Windows Photo Gallery slideshow as well as in Windows Live Photo Gallery screensaver won’t be enabled if the Graphics card score (Windows Experience Index) is less than 3.0.
Interestingly some users reported that this message was displayed in their systems although the Graphics card score was above 5.0. I worked on this issue for an hour or so, and thought I’d write my observations, solution & a workaround here. The problem seems to occur if Windows Live Photo Gallery is unable to query the Graphics card score for some reason.
First step is to update your Windows Experience Index rating.
Update your Windows Experience Index Score
Login as Administrator (or equivalent.)
Open Control Panel, click System and Maintenance, and then click Performance Information and Tools.
Click Update my score. The assessment will run for few minutes.
After assessment is complete, open Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings page to see if themes are enabled. If not, try the following step:
Registering the WinSATAPI.dll file
Open an elevated Command Prompt. To open an elevated Command Prompt, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
Register the WinSATAPI.dll file by typing the following command and pressing {ENTER}:
You should see the following message:
Never mind about the error code 0×80070716. Restart Windows, and then open Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings page to see if themes are enabled.
Workaround
If none of the above steps work, you may use the following workaround. Setting the Windows Experience Index manually fixes the problem in most cases. It’s the same old WinSATScore registry value which comes to the rescue. But wait! You’ll have to implement the registry value in a different registry branch.
Creating the "WinSATScore" Registry Value
Click Start, type Regedit.exe and press {ENTER}
Navigate to the following location:
Right-click on the key, and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it as WinSATScore
Double-click WinSATScore, select Decimal, and set the value data to 300 (or higher.)
Exit the Registry Editor.
The Windows Live Photo Gallery Screensaver settings page should now show the theme controls.
Here you see all the themes in the dropdown.
If the WinSATScore registry value exists, the Windows Live Photo Gallery screensaver won’t take the strain to query the Graphics card score using Windows Experience Index API.
Good luck, and enjoy the Screensaver themes!
Related Posts
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- Windows Live Photo Gallery Error 0×80010108 Preventing Photo From Being Displayed
- Free Windows 7 Desktop Themes and Backgrounds From Microsoft
- How to Access the Hidden Themes in Windows 7
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I believe a WINDOWS update took away my machine’s ability to run video clips in the screensaver. Your manual registry repair worked. Thank you for making the instructions so simple that even I could understand. I offer you three prostrations in praise. Thank you, Ramesh!
Thank you very much! Brilliant. Used to work no problem, then for some reason it stopped. Your advise was great!
Worked like a Champ!! Thank you!
This worked beautifully! Outstanding. Thank you so much.
Worked perfectly! thanks
Yes, thank you. i thought this issue is difficult to solve
Thanks man!!! you’re the best
Thank you. The WinSATScore worked for me.
Larry
Well, your solution played in Peoria (my town). My Gateway nv5207u Windows 7 originally showed all themes when using the Windows Live Photos screensaver. Eventually, the themes options disappeared…until today. Thank you.
Update: if you put a higher number instead of 300 in the registry decimal value, I used 700, the resolution is fixed. This solved my own problem previously posted. Hope this helps anyone who has the same problem after running the registry fix.