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Change My Screensaver
A lot of people refer to the desktop background wallpaper as their Screensaver - the two are quite different and certainly do different jobs! Your desktop background wallpaper serves no real purpose apart from making the screen image a pleaseant aesthetic experience (it looks nice!).
However, a screensaver does serve a useful purpose - or at least they used to... let me explain. In the 'old days' when everyone had a CRT monitor (Cathode Ray Tube), which looked like a television set on steriods, it was theoretically possible to 'burn' an image onto the tube which remained partially visible, even after the monitor had been switched off. To overcome this, screensaver were introduced to prevent this 'burning' effect from happening. After a specified amount of inactivity, the computer was programmed to alter the image on the screen to a moving image (your screensaver) which help prevent image burning. Move the mouse and the screensaver disappeared - simple.
Nowadays, like all things high-tech, progress in the manufacture of screens / monitors means that 'image burning' is no longer a problem, or at least not as bad as it used to be. Screensavers have become a personal statement, similar to the way a desktop background image has. Modern monitors (TFT's) are far less likely to burn an image, thereby making a scrensaver less important.
Windows comes with several screen savers. You can also create your own screen savers from personal pictures you've saved on your computer, or some software companies might develop additional screen savers for download or purchase. You should only download screen savers from a trusted source. Screen savers have the potential to contain malicious software or spyware.
Having said all that, how do you change your screensaver? Here's how it's done:
Windows XP
- Minimise all programs so that the desktop is shown.
- Right click in an empty space on the desktop.
- Left click on 'properties'.
- Click on the "screen saver" tab at the top of the screen.
- In the 'screen saver' drop down box, select the screensaver you would like to use.
For a step-by-step guide, please click on the thumbnail images below.
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Windows Vista & Windows 7
- Open Screen Saver Settings by clicking the Start button - Control Panel - Appearance and Personalization - Personalization, and then clicking Screen Saver.
- Under Screen saver, in the drop-down list, click the screen saver you want to use.
- Click Preview to see what your chosen screen saver will look like.
- Click OK.
Or,
- Right click on your desktop.
- Choose 'personalize'.
- Click on screen saver (third from the top).
- A dialog box 'screen saver settings' pops up: there's a picture of a monitor, and underneath this is a small box with a pull down arrow.
- Click on that arrow to see a list of screen savers: 3D, Aurora, Blank, Bubbles, Mystify, Photos, Ribbons, Windows Energy and Windows Logo.
- Next to the pull down arrow is a box called 'settings'. Not all screen savers can be set. Say you like Aurora. If you click on settings, Windows will say, 'this screen saver has no options that you can set'. Only a few screen savers can be set like 3D text.
- If you choose 3D text and click on settings, another dialog box appears with a slew of options: resolution, size, rotation speed, rotation type (none, spin, sea saw, wobble, tumble). You also get to choose surface style (texture, reflection or custom).
- When you click on any of these options, Windows gives you the chance to preview it.
To use your own photo or picture as screen saver:
- Go to your desktop and right-click.
- Select 'personalize' and then click on 'screen saver'.
- A dialog box 'screen saver settings' appears.
- Click on the pull down arrow and select 'photos'.
- If you saved your pictures in 'My Pictures', click on 'settings' and there will be a section in the box where it says 'browse'.
- When you've chosen the photo, click save, and then click OK.
Creating a Slide Show of Photos as Screen Saver:
- Go to Windows Photo Gallery.
- Click the pictures you want to display in the slide show. If you have more than one picture, hold down the CRTL key and click on those photos you want to include.
- Click the 'slide show' button located at the bottom of the photo gallery.
- If you don't choose any picture, Windows Vista will play all the photos filed in the picture gallery once you click on 'slide show'.
- Remember that you can control the speed of your slide show.
Tip # 1: people like to apply several themes to their Windows Vista screen savers so that pictures (and videos) can be displayed in a variety of ways. Some themes cover the entire screen with one picture at a time, while others will show several simultaneously.
Tip # 2: not all slide show themes work on all computers, says Microsoft. If the screen saver can't run with a particular theme, your computer's video card needs to be replaced with a more powerful one.
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