Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with screensaver

Help me find a Simpsons screensaver I remember from the 90's.

Pope Guilty — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:59:42 -0800

Is the Simpsons Screensaver I remember from my youth still available? When I was a kid, my dad's computer has this amazing Simpsons screensaver on it. This was maybe ten or fifteen years ago, on an ancient 386 running Windows 3.1. While the screensavers I've found on the web just show shots from the show or publicity images, this screensaver was incredibly varied; Itchy and Scratchy would do battle on your desktop, Homer would slowly eat the screen, Grandpa would doze fitfully, that sort of thing. It was a really great screensaver and I'd love to have it again. Can anyone tell me the name of the product and whether or not it's available?

Not-so-subliminal messages on a computer near you?

cameradv — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:26:07 -0800

Can anyone recommend a Windows XP screensaver that is (1) easily deployable across an organization (2) serves pictures or text from a central data store, either a URL or a networked folder, that's preferably free? We're a non-profit organization with a few hundred PCs running Windows XP on a Novell network. We'd like to have a "status screen" of some type running on all the PCs, so when they go to the screensaver, it displays text from a central source. I've debated Flash and other fancy players, but I think just serving images is good enough ... the slide show transitions will be attention getting, and the screens displaying information can be generated by any number of programs that make BMP or JPGs.

There are a zillion slide-show screensavers. My current best candidate is Endless Slideshow Screensaver .. but I'm game for additional ideas or sources. This seems like it maybe a bit over-kill for our needs.

Surely, this is a problem solved about 10,000 times already. Just not by our local IT department.

Screensaver Scheduler

edbyford — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:50:36 -0800

I want to only have my screensaver come on during certain parts of the day, but still want to have JKDefrag running. I have an LG Flatron LCD screen, and I have just discovered Rainmeter. So now I have a big fat clock (the SUPERCOLOSSAL skin) sitting on my desktop, which I'd like to be able to see all day.

BUT previously, I've had my screensaver set up to be JKDefrag, with it powering down my monitor after 30 mins (so that if I fall asleep while watching a movie, the screen isn't on all night).

So - what I would like is for my screensaver/power saving only to be active during the night (between, say, midnight and 8am). I don't think I can use Task Scheduler for this, as if I'm still using my computer at midnight, then it'll interrupt me - and if I start using it after midnight, when I stop using it I want the screensaver to run.

This is less important than the point above, but I would also like JKDefrag to be able to run throughout the day (when I'm not using my computer). I know I could use Task Scheduler to set it to run when idle, but that seems messy. Could I run it in the background/hidden?

Thanks in advance

Stop locking me out!

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:23:58 -0800

How can I keep PointSec from switching my screen saver preference? My company's IT recently installed the PointSec software package on my laptop. This is security software that is primarily designed to encrypt your hard drive. One of the secondary features it has is to make your screen saver password protected. Is there any way to turn this feature off?

Now, I know that this program by its nature is difficult to modify or remove without administrator passwords. I'm not interested in incurring the wrath of my IT department by trying to do so. However, I can temporarily turn off the password feature by going into the Display Properties dialog and unchecking the 'On resume, password protect' box. So, clearly, this particular aspect can be somewhat modified. It's just that every time I reboot, the box is again checked. I'd prefer to not have to undo that with every reboot. Is there any possible way to do so, by monkeying with the registry or something?

FWIW:
HP Compaq 6515b
Windows XP SP3
PointSec PC 6.3.1

Can someone recommend the best software to use for a homemade Digital Photo Frame?

prupert — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:44:58 -0800

I have just built my first WiFi Photo Frame, by converting an old laptop and adding a picture frame to it. I now want to find the best software to use with it to display photos, videos and newsfeeds. I am stuck with Windows XP (memory issues on lappie) and my specs are 1.6Ghz Processor, 256 MB Ram and intergrated graphics. I am looking for either a screensaver, or some software that I can run that can display the following, these are listed in order of importance:

- random photos from a variety of folders and sub-folders
- random videos from the same folders as the photos
- RSS feeds (preferably over the photos, or separate too them) that can show news updates, or just a program that shows news headlines
- anything else cool (like a globe like the Wii News thingy, or PS3s Life)

Cheers in advance.

OS X screen locking solution needed urgently!

joshrholloway — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:39:35 -0800

How can I lock the screen saver timeout duration for user accounts on Mac OS X 10.5 in the most efficient way possible? Our small company is working on implementing a standardized image installation of OS X for the roughly 15 or so Macs we have in the building. We have most of it set up how we want, but we are running into one big issue with locking the screen after a set period of time predetermined by IT.

I have been working with one of my co-workers who is a programming and command-line whiz, but the best we have been able to come up with is a script and daemon that kicks the user back to the login window (but keeps them logged in) after ten minutes of inactivity (using fast user switching). This is not a bad solution except for the fact that there appears to be a bug in QuickTime that doesn't play well with fast user switching. Almost all of our Mac users use Final Cut or some other pro app that utilizes QuickTime heavily, and when they are kicked back to the login window and then unlock and come back, the apps will freeze up and cause lots of issues, killing productivity.

So what we would like to do is simply lock the screen saver timeout duration to ten minutes in such a way that the user cannot change it, or that if they do it basically has no effect. All the ways we've tried to do this don't seem to work. We have attempted scripts and all sorts of command-line magic, as well as using the Workgroup Manager... no go. I imagine this would probably be an easy thing to do under Leopard Server, but we don't have one and don't plan on getting one.

So is there a solution to this? Bonus points if I can get a solution that we can implement by Friday.

Email notification screensaver for Windows

fcoury — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:51:10 -0800

Is there any (fancy and/or free preferable) Windows screensaver that shows the number of unread messages using POP3 and/or IMAP? On ideal world, what I would really like is a screensave that sits on top of your regular screensaver (inside its configuration you could pick what would be the background screensaver) and the notification could then be placed (like a watermark) on top of it.

Is there anything close to that? If not, what would be the closest matches, considering the fancy and free preference, even though I would pay for a really good one.

Any suggestions?

Just save the screen, OK?

Xurando — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:03:45 -0800

My four year old IMac G4, which is out of warranty, has acquired this nasty habit of shutting itself off. What's going on? When not in active use the computer goes to a screen saver, after a few minutes of the screen saver, the screen goes black and it shuts itself completely off. Once in a while (but not everytime) the fan goes into high revs before it shuts itself off. Is this fixable by me? The local technicians want $80 an hour to look at it on their time schedule.

Why do screensavers hate me?

Lazlo — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:29:05 -0800

Is there a clever way to figure out what's telling screensavers to exit as soon as they launch? (Windows XP SP2) After a reboot, screensavers work as expected -- they start after X minutes of idle time and exit when there's keyboard or mouse input. But after a while -- half an hour, a couple of hours, a day -- they exit immediately after starting, as if someone were smacking the keyboard the moment the screen flickered. Then after another X minutes, they try to start again, and immediately exit. Cycle forever. Then after a reboot everything works properly again.

I've tried changing screensavers, unplugging input devices, checking what's running when the problem occurs -- there's no consistent pattern to it except that screensavers work for a while, then don't. The only exception: even after this behavior kicks in, screensavers previewed in Display Properties work as expected, running until there's actual mouse or keyboard input. So if some rogue device or process is sending ghost input events, the screensavers only see it when they've been launched due to a period of idle time.

Is there any better way to figure what's telling these things to exit? Maybe some kind of instrumented "test" screensaver that'll log the events it receives so I can figure out what's telling it to close?

What was that cool screensaver?

fish tick — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:56:31 -0800

Please help me remember the name of a fancy Windows screensaver from about 1996. The only points I remember clearly about it was that it was shareware, had many available modules, one of which was an animated soccer/football game that periodically had a streaker dash across the field.

Having a problem with screen blanking in Fluxbuntu.

concrete — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:33:05 -0800

Having a problem with screen blanking in Fluxbuntu. I recently started using Fluxbuntu on my old laptop, and it works great except for one issue. The system seems to save power by blanking the screen after 5 minutes or so. If I pause a video and leave it unattended, however, the screen won't come back up. I end up having to manually shut the system down.

Does anybody know how I can fix this? I've searched the Fluxbuntu forums and I can only find one post that relates to the subject. I can't find any screensaver or power management utilities - do I have to manually edit configuration files to solve this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sometimes there are flying toasters...

Wroksie — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:03:47 -0800

Help me get rid of this stupid screensaver! I am running xubuntu on my old laptop and it has a password-protected screensaver installed (Xscreensaver 4.24) that drives me insane. It comes on even if I just half-way close the laptop to move it somewhere else in the house and sometimes it takes FOREVER to get back to the desktop. The laptop never leaves my house so I could care less about password-protection and besides this thing is just plain ugly. I know next to nothing about Linux, whenever I want something changed or fixed I just beg someone more knowledgeable among my geeky friends and family, but none of them are around at the moment (and one of them who had a look at this before gave up after about five minutes). So please help! (and as for my level of linux knowledge, I know how to open the terminal and shut down a program if it's hanging up. And that's it.)

Is there an animated inspirational quote screensaver?

agrandy — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:49:27 -0800

Is there a Windows screensaver that animates text of inspirational quotes (allows me to add my own quotes)? Looking for a cool looking screen saver that animates text of quotes that I think are really cool. I'd like to be able to add quotes.

Does anyone know if there's any good software to turn a mac into a news display kiosk? Nobody will actually interact with the computer -- the contents will dynamically update via the internet (RSS/other).

evanm — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:41:08 -0800

Does anyone know if there's any good software to turn a mac into a news display kiosk? Nobody will actually interact with the computer -- the contents will dynamically update via the internet (RSS/other). I want something similar to http://online-news-screensaver.michael-sablin.qarchive.org/ but works on the mac. Something that displays news, maybe weather, in an elegant way. Similar to how "The coffee bean and tea leaf" has that plasma in its LA coffee shops...

ISBN to cover photo

cosmicbandito — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 09:29:17 -0800

How to turn a list of ISBNs into a folder of JPEG photos of those book covers? I want to use photos of books in my library as a screen saver/ advertisement. I want to do this using the ISBNs. Is there an online tool that will take a list of ISBNs, pull the appropriate cover images from Amazon or another service, and dump them into a folder for me? I'm looking for functionality similar to Shelfari's bookshelf, but with JPEG output.

art screensaver

diode — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:27:55 -0800

I would like to find a screensaver an artist friend can load his artwork into and sell, for PC's and Macs. My friend is a photographer who works on a Mac. He prints out his Photoshop enhanced photography and sells at markets and fairs. He says he knows of other artists who sell screensavers with their art loaded into them. I'd like to find shareware that can do this. For the widest market hopefully this software would have an installer for both PC's and Macs on one CD that could be sold by the artist ready to go.

How can I get XP power options to work?

shokod — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:30:43 -0800

How can I get my power settings (in XP) to actually work? I have a new Fujitsu Lifebook running XP SP2 and for some reason the power settings don't work. I have it set on energy-saving scheme and none of my settings (turn off monitor, stop hard drives, etc) work on plugged in or on battery. I've tried switching the schemes and nothing works. This seems like such a small problem that it shouldn't even be a problem. I've done some googling and all I've seen is that other people have the problem, but I haven't found a solution. So how can I fix it? Otherwise, is there anyway I can turn off my monitor w/out using the power settings? If I could do that then that would be okay.

Best Mac screensavers

GardnerDB — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 17:27:16 -0800

Best (free/cheap) Mac screensavers? No Electric Sheep. Flurry is fun but I'm tired of it. I also downloaded Offshoots, Fields, VisionSynth, Scattered Flurries, Lotsawater, Euphoria, and Lotsaglass.

Got any other free/cheap suggestions? I love Electric Sheep but I can't get it to work properly on my Mac.

I like to use Backlight so that I can use screensavers as my desktop wallpaper.

someone else's slide show

Xurando — Tue, 15 May 2007 12:45:40 -0800

I'm looking for a website that I can use as a screen saver. The site should have a continuous slide show function with random and weird pictures that don't repeat for 15 minutes or so. I've gotten bored with all my own pictures on my computer and need something diverting on my screen while I work with non computer related stuff.

I don't believe flickr has this function but I know it exists somewhere.

create screensavers from PowerPoint

foxinthesnow — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:20:03 -0800

I would like to create a screensaver using a PowerPoint presentation. I am aware that I can save the slides and then create a My Pictures slideshow-type screensaver, but this method loses the animation, which is critical. Searching on Google, there is an abundance of software that promises to convert PPT shows to screensavers, but I have never heard of any of the companies providing the software, and I am hesitant to just start downloading it willy-nilly. Can anyone recommend a method for creating screensavers from PowerPoints based on their own experience? I am especially interested in free methods. If it matters, I am using Windows XP and PowerPoint 2007.

Software that will let me create a Windows screensaver on a Mac platform.

tellurian — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 21:59:38 -0800

A client wants us to create a promotional screensaver for them. The problem is we are on a Mac platform and they are on Windows. All of the software I've looked at requires you to be on Windows if you're wanting a Windows screensaver. We are going to use Flash but if there's something else that will help me get around this problem please let me know.

Screensave search

Cosine — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 16:34:34 -0800

Wild Goose Chase Filter: So my boss wants.... a way to have PC's go into lockdown mode after a certain period of time (as they do now) BUT have the screen not change. ie: the machine is locked but nothing happens on screen to indicate this.

Anyone? Bueller?

New mouse broke screensaver

AstroGuy — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:33:24 -0800

My new Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 5000 broke my screensaver. Help? All the details: eMachines T6522 Media Center PC w/TV tuner card, remote, etc. This mouse replaced a wired el cheapo MS Intellimouse which did not exhibit this issue. Since installation, screen saver or power save mode will not activate (previews fine).

Googling the issue turned up a few leads. A MS KB article talked about disabling ehtray and a DVD process. An online suggestion was to plug the USB connector into a green USB-to-PS2 connector (didn't work--mouse not recognized).

Called MS support and they had me disable the stuff listed in the KB article. That made the screensaver work. It also disabled the Media Center remote control. And the ehtray.exe process restarts if Media Center is started via the Start menu, which again breaks the screensaver.

Anyone else have this problem and fix it?

Display that tune

mezzanayne — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 11:56:01 -0800

I want my Windows screensaver to display the artist and title of the song that Winamp is currently playing. I'm in the process of putting together a stand-alone media player/music server and would like to have the current Winamp song information (from the IDv3 tag, if possible) displayed via screensaver.

I've searched for something OOTB but my Googlefu has failed me. Does such a screensaver exist? I know that Winamp offers an SDK so I could try to code one myself but I thought that I'd query the hive mind first.

Need a specific screensaver

Ikazuchi — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 05:38:26 -0800

I'm hunting for a screensaver for my company with some very specific requirements. I need one that can rotate through images in a directory (and specify a directory, not the images themselves so that we can just push new slides out to our machines without having to muck with the configuration of the screensaver). Also, when the screensaver activates, it locks the computer, and when the user comes back to the machine, it asks if you want to unlock or logoff the machine (in case someone locks a public machine and leaves for the day or what have you). Any suggestions? This is going to be distributed on a lot of Windows XP machine and mandated through group policy.