Screensaver that's useful.
May 3, 2010 7:23 AM   Subscribe

Is there a screensaver for Windows 7 that doesn't hide or freeze the desktop?

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the bubbles screensaver, but one that uses a live image of whatever is on the screen rather than a frozen snapshot of it.

I want to keep an eye on progress bars and stuff but without leaving a static image on the screen (to prevent any nasty side effects - if that still applies to modern LCD screens)
posted by lemonfridge to Computers & Internet (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
It does not apply to LCDs.
posted by kindall at 7:45 AM on May 3, 2010


shouldn't be any major issues... only screen burns you'd get with a modern lcd is after a month or so of one issue, and even that doesn't happen...
posted by fozzie33 at 7:50 AM on May 3, 2010


I don't know if it works in Win7 ... but a few years ago there was a popular screen saver called "Clear Saver"... You might give it a look and see if it fits your needs.
posted by jmnugent at 8:31 AM on May 3, 2010


Most of the image you see is static anyway, and the LCD pixels (I think) are always "flickering" to maintain the desired brightness of the individual color. If the main pixel is displaying r50 g50 b50, each subpixel is flickering at 50% duty cycle to let 50% of the light of each color through. I suppose a pixel at 0% brightness (100% duty cycle) might get stuck after a while, but as fozzie33 says, that would take a really long time and probably go away the next time the pixel changed colors or the screen was off for a while.

Plus, the "wear" issue with LCD screens is the backlight, which is on no matter what is being displayed on the screen.

In other words, if you need to see something, just leave the screen up. If you don't, let the power management settings turn the backlight off.
posted by gjc at 8:59 AM on May 3, 2010


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