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How To Change The Screensaver on Ubuntu 11.10

Danny Stieben — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:00:55 +0000

Among all the great things about the Ubuntu 11.10 release, the selection of screensavers isn’t one of them. In fact, if you look a little more closely, there isn’t any selection at all. Instead, all you get is the “blank screen” screensaver, which does nothing more than, well, give you a blank screen.

Intuitively, there doesn’t seem to be a way to fix it, so you’ll need to use a back door way to get a nicer selection of screensavers. But why does this problem exist in the first place?

It’s All GNOME 3

In the latest changes, Ubuntu 11.10 finally switches over from GNOME 2 as its background framework of applications that Unity sits on top of, to GNOME 3. The latest version of GNOME 3, version 3.2, does have a wide range of system configuration options, but is still considered young in many aspects, including this one. One of the things GNOME 3 hasn’t yet expanded on is the selection of screensavers.

Although Ubuntu has the power to change out this part if the developers wanted to, I presume they left it as it is for uniformity. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t change it yourself.

Switching To Better Screensavers

Doing this isn’t as hard as it may sound. You’ll simply need to switch out some packages and the job will be done. Before you start, make sure that in Software Sources you have all possible sources selected so that Ubuntu will find the needed packages.

It will be faster if you copy and paste the following command into the terminal (

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver && sudo apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra

), or you can manually remove

gnome-screensaver

and install

xscreensaver

xscreensaver-gl-extra

, and

xscreensaver-data-extra

via the Ubuntu Software Center.

Configuration

Once that completes, you can then go ahead and launch XScreenSaver (which simply appears as “Screensaver” when searching for it in the Unity Dash). When you first open the configuration window, you’ll be warned that the GNOME screensaver daemon is still running, and you should stop it. Go ahead and do that, then allow the XScreenSaver daemon to run on the current display.

In the first tab called “Display Modes”, you can set what kind of screensaver you’d like to have. There are plenty of different options, and you can even change from one to the other, automatically, after a certain amount of time. You can even choose which screensavers it should regularly switch.

In the “Advanced” tab, you’ll get to do a heck of a lot of advanced stuff. A lot of it doesn’t make much sense to me, so if you’re like me you’ll be best served just leaving those options alone. However, for those that do know what this is talking about, you’re welcome to take a swing at it.

Reverting Back

In case you’d like to go back to the simple blank screen, either because you know it’ll just work or because you have some other reason, this is easy to do as well. I recommend that you run this via the terminal as you need to do more than just install and remove packages, but if you choose to do it differently, that is up to you.

In order to revert to what you had before, run

sudo apt-get remove xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra && sudo rm /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command && sudo apt-get install gnome-screensaver

. This will uninstall and install the correct packages, as well as remove a file that is no longer needed and would otherwise cause issues.

Conclusion

Once again, the beauty of Linux‘s ability to be highly customizable shines brightly. Thankfully, this option to change the screensaver is available and easily accessible by any user. Hopefully in subsequent releases we will see Ubuntu (or the GNOME framework) include more screensaver options by default so that this becomes unnecessary. Until then, I believe this will be perfectly fine.

What other parts of Ubuntu seem to be missing something, like the screensavers mentioned in this article? What would you like to see be added next to the GNOME bundle? Let us know in the comments!

How To Disable Your Windows Screensaver With Motion Detection

Ryan Dube — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:31:02 +0000

While password-locked screensavers are a security necessity at many businesses, in most homes the screensaver’s only real purpose is to…well…save the screen. It can become a little bit of an annoyance to have to tap the keyboard or move the mouse whenever you walk up to the computer to see what’s going on. It’s especially annoying if you have scans running or some other activity that you just want to monitor over a long period of time. The screensaver will kick in, and you have to tap the keyboard or move the mouse to remove it.

Wouldn’t it be cool if your computer acted a little bit more like one of those advanced computers you read about in science fiction novels, where you can simply walk up to it and it can sense that you are there and respond accordingly? I mean, these days almost every computer comes with a webcam of some sort, often embedded right above the monitor, so the potential for smarter, more automated computers is there.

There may be some newer computer systems that already do this, but for the most part people are still stuck with tapping the keyboard to disable the screen saver. I started thinking about this the other day and decided to try to put together a combination of applications and scripts that would accomplish this simple automation task (yes, these are the sorts of things automation engineers do for fun).

The Motion-Detection Screensaver Solution

What I came up with was an application-script combination that would constantly monitor the webcam for motion, and then instantly run a script that would remove the screensaver. Deciding on the webcam software was easy. I was tempted to use the Active Webcam software that I previously wrote about, but then I realized that YawCam, which Mark covered before, is much simpler and more effective for this sort of task.

Once you install and run YawCam (and give them a nice donation for offering us this free software), you’ll see the following screen over the webcam video.

Click on “Window” and then choose Motion detection from the dropdown list. On the next screen, you’ll see a page where the motion detection software logs each time a motion event takes place (when the detection is activated). Click on the “Actions” tab to set up the file that you’ll have YawCam run whenever motion is detected.

On this screen, you’ll see a “Settings…” button next to Run.exe. Select the checkbox next to “Run.exe” and then click on the settings button.

Click on the Activate check box for flood control (you don’t want the script launching 50 times a second), and put some delay (I put 10 seconds, but you can use up to 60 or more). The next step would be to click on the browse button and choose your script file that you want to run. Alas, you don’t have one yet. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

You’ll notice that the default filter looks for .bat or .exe files, but you can also choose a Windows Script file (.wsf). For this article, I hunted for a whole list of ways to kill the screensaver via script. I searched for programs that already exist, or batch job methods that disable the screen saver. In each of those cases the screensaver stays disabled – not good. So then I turned to methods to send keyboard keys or mouse clicks to Windows – and sure enough, that was the solution.

After digging around Microsoft help files, I found the SendKeys code that simulates pressing the “Enter” button on the keyboard.

The following is the script.

Save this script to a .wsf file and point the Action event in YawCam to that file. Now, every time there’s motion in the webcam, it’ll kick off your script, which simulates pressing the keyboard enter key – which will disable the screen saver.

If you find that your script isn’t getting launched or the motion detection doesn’t seem to be working (or it’s too sensitive), make sure to check out the “Settings” tab in YawCam. Make sure that the tolerance is high enough so it’s not too sensitive, and make sure the sensitivity is high enough so that it picks up when you sit down in front of the computer.

As with most automated solutions, this one isn’t perfect yet because you have to turn it off when you actually want to use the computer or it’ll keep sending the “Enter” key whenever there’s motion. I’m sure there are other creative ways you can probably perfect this automated screensaver trick. The solution above will work best for situations where you have something running for hours (like a virus scan) and you want to just walk up to the screen and have it automatically show you what’s going on, but then the screensaver will reactivate after you walk away.

Did you install this automated screensaver setup? How well did it work for you? Did you find a way to perfect the system even more? Share your insights in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Vivek Chugh

6 Awesomely Geeky Screensavers for Mac and PC Users

Nancy Messieh — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:30:57 +0000

These days, it seems that one of the last things people think about when it comes to customising their computers is the screensaver. There are all sorts of options out there for both Mac and PC users — from abstract vector designs to clocks and calendars to keep your eye on the time.

Screensavers can be used in all sorts of creative and unique ways, and if nothing else, they can brighten up your screen. We’ve put together a list of 6 screensavers that should appeal to the geek in you. There’s a little something for every type of geek, from the GTD Geek to the Trekkie in you that’s bursting to come out.

PolarClock

There are many clock screensavers out there that will basically get the job done. Design geeks will probably choose PolarClock over other screensavers any day of the week. Available in 28 languages, with a 24 hour or 12 hour clocks, and font size customization; PolarClock gives you a fun and colourful way to protect your screen, and tell the time. PolarClock is available as a free download for Mac and Windows users, and is also available as a paid iPhone app to turn your phone into a geek-chic nightstand.

System 47

The ultimate in geekiness, System 47 was created as a homage to Star Trek and displays screens from the fictional operating system, LCARS. The screensaver comes fully equipped with images and sound effects, the latter of which can be disabled in the options.

System 47 hasn’t been updated in quite a while, and Mac users running 10.5 or later won’t be able to install the program from the original file. Since the screensaver was abandoned by its original developer, some fans have taken it upon themselves to update it and the Mac installation file can be downloaded from Mac Update.

Electric Sheep

No geeky list of screensavers is complete without the iconic Electric Sheep. The psychedelic screensaver certainly needs no introduction. The opensource screensaver is made up of vector art contributed by thousands of people from all over the world. If you want to get in on it it and contribute your own design, you can do so here.

WorldClock

Another awesome clock screensaver is Simon Heys’ World Clock. Mac and PC compatible, the screensaver displays the current time and date. The screensaver is highly customisable, with the ability to alter the font, choose between a linear or rotary design, as well as several different ways to display the time and date.

GeoCodEarth

GeoCodEarth is the ultimate screensaver for any Twitter geek. Compatible with both Macs and PCs, the screensaver displays what’s being shared on Flickr, Twitter and Ffffound around the world. You can also add specific Flickr or Brightkite searches as well as any RSS feed you choose. The GeoCodEarth screensaver requires an internet connection to work.

iTunes Album Art

For the music geek, using your album artwork as a screensaver is a pretty cool way to get a huge variety of art on your screen in one go. For Mac users, this feature comes bundled with any machine, with iTunes album artwork used as one of the native screensavers. PC users can get in on the fun with Crayon Room’s free screensaver.

Image credit: Shutterstock

5 Awesome High Tech Screensavers [Windows]

Ryan Dube — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:31:47 +0000

One of the things that I didn’t like about upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 is that I had to reconfigure a lot of the customizing that I’d done. I decided to consider the upgrade to Windows 7 as a fresh start, so I went out in search of new desktop backgrounds, cool Windows 7 gadgets, and of course sci-fi or high-tech screensavers that are not only great eye-candy, but somewhat functional.

Due to those search efforts, I came across a few awesome screensavers that I have to share. I like screensavers that really drop the jaw of anyone that might be walking by when its active. Simulations, high definition 3D graphics and lots of useful information are all requirements that I look for when I want to find a cool screensaver.

5 Awesome High Tech Screensavers

If you read Shannon’s review of some cool ways to update Twitter, then you will know about Twittearth. Well, since she covered it, the name of the application changed to GeocodEarth and redesigned to cover much more than just Tweets. The service is now built upon Geo RSS posts from around the world. These include Flickr images, Tweets, and much more. But the coolest part of the service is that it’s now also a screensaver that looks awesome, and it’s functional.

You can rotate the planet, click on specific types of updates, or just hover your mouse over the icon on the globe and see a snippet of the update. It’s one of the coolest visualizations of Geo RSS updates yet.

The next cool looking screensaver that I came across was actually one provided by the National Science Foundation which displays stunning images of supercomputer-generated advanced computer simulations. These are scientific models of various phenomenon or scientific questions which took a lot of computer power and a long time to generate.

Further in my search for screensavers that have that cool sci-fi appeal, I came across an interesting UK site that offers a whole library of screensavers. While the setup process asks for contact information, it appears that at least the two screensavers listed below are available for free. My favorite by far is Mechanical Clock 3D.

You can set it up to use whatever graphics quality you want, as well as a number of other factors. I highly recommend cutting the sound back to 50 percent, as the ticking of this mechanical clock can get pretty annoying if it’s too loud.

Once you enable this screensaver, I’m confident you’ll like it as much as I did. In fact, this is now my screensaver of choice at the moment. When its running, you can see all internal moving parts of the “mechanical clock” as well as the ticking second hand and a clock strike every hour (unless you disable it).

Another amazing screensaver from this same website is called Earth 3D. According to the description, the screensaver provides a window to what the astronauts see and experience when they orbit the earth in the space shuttle. The view is of earth, exactly how astronauts would see it.

You can either allow the screensaver to play music in the background and orbit freely, you can use your mouse to take control of the flow and turn the orbit in whatever direction you like so that you can get a good view of everything.

The final screensaver that I wanted to mention is actually one that was covered earlier by Varun. It is also mentioned throughout the web by numerous writers – and for very good reason. This is by far the best screensaver I’ve ever seen. The planet rotates in an intuitive way that goes along with the latest blog posts from around the world (that are part of the Twingly network).

I love the look and feel of this awesome screensaver – it’s like sitting in one of those cool military command posts that you see in the movies, where there are always big screens constantly updated with new data, charts and moving images. With this screensaver, you can feel as though you’re keeping a close eye on the pulse of the web as titles and information flow across your screen.

Have you ever tried any of these screensavers? If so, what did you think of them? Do you know any other cool, high-tech screensavers? Share your insight in the comments section below.

The 10 Creative Ways To Use A Screensaver

Saikat Basu — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:31:02 +0000

Screensavers were meant to be protective shields that kicked in when a computer stood idle. It’s not true anymore because screen technology has hopped ahead. We don’t actually need them to shield our screens from phosphor burn-ins.

Screensavers today may be as useful as a brick from the Berlin Wall. But just like that plain old brick’s value as a memorabilia; screensavers also have managed to retain their charm.

The protective use of screensavers has given way to their use as fun tools. Then there is its Hyde-like face, when a Trojan hiding inside a screensaver file wrecks havoc on an unsuspecting computer.

But we like the good. So let’s not focus on evil cousins like spywares and malwares. Instead let’s look at ways how to use screensavers not only entertainment tools but also as utilitarian ones.

Screensavers make a fleeting appearance, as long as a computer stands idle. Even for those blink and its gone seconds, a screensaver can be put to a lot of creative uses. Let’s see how far the creative side of screensavers is being stretched.

A Temporary Shield To Secure Your Files

Walking away from your desk for some water-cooler chat? Secure your computer with a password protected screensaver. The password protection applies only if you use a log-on password.

Read the Microsoft Help post to know the simple 3 steps to protect your files by using a screensaver password.

Make Your Own Desktop Art Gallery

Last year’s post on 5 Ways to Make Your Own Screensavers took a look at some easy and quick ways to create your own screensavers. Once you know the How-to on screensavers, creating personalized screensavers is easy. There is no lack of ideas.

How about a family photo album? Or a chronological series of your child’s growing up photographs? One of the best uses I have seen is a screensaver being used to display a child’s artwork. In short, if you think of ways to use a photo, you can put it on a screensaver.

You can set up photo feeds using Photo Feeds for Google Photos Screensaver. Photo feeds are streams of images from sites that support photo feeds and viewable in Google Photos Screensaver.

Loopy is a Flickr based screensaver that displays the newest photos that gets uploaded on Flickr. You can click on the photos and directly go to their Flickr photostream.

Jog Your Memory With A Reminder

While putting together this article, I came across a mention of how an elderly person used a screensaver as a pill reminder tool. Neat!

When we can have to-do pop ups from task management apps, why not use a screensaver for the same? If you know how to put together some text in MS Paint or even PowerPoint, you can use the simple graphic files as a reminder screensaver.

Five Seconds Of Motivation

The same technique applies to piling up a bunch of motivational posters and using them as screensavers. The previous link on how to make a screensaver shows the Picasa way to set it up with Google Photos Screensaver.

Alternatively, you can set up a word cloud with a bunch of motivation triggering life goals and put it as a screensaver.

Get Digg-ing

Why not put a screensaver to do the Digg-ing for you? Digg Labs has five real time Digg tools which can be downloaded as screensavers for both Windows and Mac. The five tools are ““Arcs, BigSpy, Pics, Stack, and Swarm. All of them let you visualize real time Digg information on the screensaver. You need to have an internet connection and Adobe Flash 9 installed to enjoy them.

Your Own Blogosphere Telescope

Just like the Digg real time visualization tools, the blogosphere also has some of its own screensaver help. Twingly is a blog search engine, but it’s the cool Twingly screensaver that takes the eyeballs. Here’s a review which talks about the 24X7 blog feed streaming feature of the screensaver. You get to see what’s getting updated in blogs around the world with the visual help of an interactive 3D globe. You can rotate the globe and see blog postings in different corners of the world.

The 2.09MB download is Windows only.

The Same For RSS Feeds & Twitter

Screensavers are also available for free download which can enhance your desktop by giving you real time updates of RSS feeds and Tweets.

Screensavers & RSS feeds

RSSMore is a free screensaver that works like a feed reader by letting you subscribe to RSS/XML feeds. You can keep the background blank or set it up to display photos from picture albums. RSSMore cycles through the feeds and displays the feeds in boxes framed against the background. You can also click on any link and go to the source, directly from the screensaver.

MappedUp displays a world map of green dots. RSS news is tracked and displayed as interchanging red and yellow location dots on the map. Red dots are for updated feeds while yellow is a bit more passive feed. By rolling your mouse over the dots, you can read the titles of all new articles. By clicking a title, you jump to the author’s website to read the entire article.

RSS Saver is another screensaver with RSS preview and visualization features. It displays RSS feeds one at a time.

Screensavers & Tweets

Geocodearth (now in public beta) combines Twitter, Flickr and FFFFound to bring you location wise Tweets and images.

Twitsaver is another cool photo screensaver you can try out that takes in photos from Twitter’s public timeline.

Some Random Wikipedia Browsing

The Wikipedia screensaver loads random pages from the online encyclopedia. The time delay between each page load can be set by the user. The Wikipedia screensaver can also be configured to disable any process running in the background, like IE and Firefox.

It is a small 123KB download, but it requires .NET 1.1 or later to run. It is tested on Windows XP and Vista (only for admin account).

As Your Desktop Weatherman

When you read about the really cool weather app called YoWindow, you can miss the mention of its use as a screensaver. YoWindow gives you a virtual glimpse of the weather outside by taking in the data from the METAR stations network. It displays an image of a landscape with the kind of weather you may be having.

I came across a screensaver download from Inrumor.com which also is a very good example of how to package your website’s branding into the utility of a screensaver. Inrumor is a site that talks about lifestyle, celebrities, auto industry, Hollywood, artists, politicians, and technology.

The screensaver in jet black gave me the local weather and a 2 day forecast. Following the theme of the website, it presented a scrollable stream of news feed on what it calls ““ rumors. A calendar and an analog clock rounded off the features.

Screensaver & Learning

Even the brief spell of a screensaver can be used to drill some bytes of learning. Check out a few examples at the links below.

SOHO Screensaver from the European Space Agency lets you watch spectacular, almost real-time images of our Sun. The images come from ESA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). The screensaver comes in Windows and Mac OS X versions.

Screen-o-mania has some great screensavers. The Cities of the Earth 3D Screensaver finds popular mention. The screensaver shows highlighted cities with information about its population and country names. And you can add your own city.

Check out this simple screensaver which tries to promote hand hygiene using a screensaver.

And let me end with a brief mention of National Geographic Custom Screensavers which inspire care for the ecosystem. It’s available for both Windows and Mac.

Have you put screensavers to out of the ordinary uses lately? Let us pick up some more ideas.

Image Credit: mr.gibbs and newtype2011

Hallucinogenic Desktop Themes & Screensavers

Ryan Dube — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:01:11 +0000

One might wonder whether there’s really any good use for free hallucinogenic desktop themes and screensavers. Way back in college, a couple of decades ago, I was one of the few students in the dormitory with a computer system in my dorm room, complete with a hi-fi sound system attached, and of course one of the most funkadelic screensavers in the world.

Now, we had some odd neighbors across the hall who were heavy into smoking just about anything they could get their hands on. Inevitably, during their weekend gatherings, at least one of the “stoners” would catch sight of the swirling patterns on my desktop, and he would stumble his way across the hall to get a closer look.

By the end of the evening, my roomate and I would end up with two or three doped-up college students mesmerized by the hallucinogenic screensaver, and saying “woah…” over and over. It would have been annoying if it wasn’t so funny.

Putting Hallucinogenic Desktop Themes & Screensavers To Good Use

Here at MakeUseOf, we’ve covered a wide variety of screensaver topics, such as Varun’s article on how to Use Videos As A Screensaver or Wallpaper, or Saikat’s article on 5 Ways To Make Your Own Screensaver. However, hypnotic and trance-inducing screensavers have always fascinated me.

Now, I’m not suggesting that readers experiment with hallucinogenic drugs in order to get the full experience of these screensavers, but I am pointing out that these patterns and moving images have the ability to take a hold of your mind in an almost hypnotic way. But what are these images really doing to your mind, and why should you install them on your computer? The answer is simple – mental foreplay.

V. S. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist at the University of California, and author of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness. wrote that the human mind, when faced with patterns or images that aren’t recognizable, has a tendency to immediately get to work on grouping colors and shapes based on those patterns that it can recognize. When a person looks at a “camouflaged” image, the brain works extra hard to decipher at least parts of the strange image, and when elements are recognized, the brain has multiple “aha!” moments which Ramachandran describes as “visual foreplay before the final climax of object recognition.”

The following free hallucinogenic desktop themes and screensavers are a few of the best on the Internet, and they are sure to provide you with many hours of mental foreplay (just make sure the wife doesn’t catch you).

1. Drempels – A Screensaver and Desktop Theme in One

Drempels is one of the most popular mesmerizing screensavers available. Like many other “trippy” screensavers, Drempels brings you colorful, swirling patterns that morph your screen into a kaleidescope. However, what makes this application so popular is that you don’t have to be in screensaver mode for it to hypnotize your senses.

Drempels can actually be configured to run as your Windows desktop image, so that instead of some boring static picture of your dog, you can enjoy a constantly moving desktop image. It certainly takes some getting used to, but once you do you’ll never go back to a static desktop again. And the cool thing is that setup is from one basic screen, not a series of complicated tabs and menus.

Currently Drempels is only offered for Windows, and keep in mind that you’ll need DirectX 5.0 installed.

2. Really Slick Screensavers – A Collection of Mind-Bending Imagery

Really Slick Screensavers is a set of amazing free 3D OpenGL screensavers that feature some of the most eccentric, hallucinogenic morphing images. Installation is just a matter of downloading the .scr files and placing them in your screensaver directory. I have three favorites from this collection of eleven.

Solar winds launches a series of streaming beaded lasers across the length of your desktop. I guarantee that if you spend even five minutes staring at the imagery created by this screensaver, you’re going to get yourself hyptnotized.

Euphoria is really hard to describe, but it’s amazing to watch. In this screensaver, ghostly streaks of color blend and mold, almost like strips of paint from a paint brush that can never seem to settle on a spot on the screen where it’s willing to stay put, or remain the same color. These dancing phantom colors will soothe your troubled mind and calm your nerves.

Helios is easily my favorite “really slick” screensaver of all of them. It might be my personal fascination with science and quantum physics, but these objects that morph, form and reform on the screen remind me of the ever-changing processes of cellular biology and the evolutionary process of nature. The imagery in this screensaver is one of the most striking of any I’ve seen, and I keep this screensaver at the very top of my list both at work and at home.

3. Znow Desktop – Use Hallucinations to Relieve Eye Tension

Finally, the last hallucinogenic screensaver on the list is actually one that’s been around for years. Znow from Deskex is a screensaver with a long list of effects that it can perform on your entire desktop, even while you are busy using applications. Znow will overlay special effects over all windows and applications. The effects include snow, rain, fire fall, northern lights, hallucinations and more. The effect is selected from a drop-down list when you first launch the application.

Each of the effects is surreal, especially if you forget that you’ve configured “hallucinations” to start taking effect on a timer. Suddenly, while you’re in the middle of writing a paper or surfing the web, little “happy bubbles” start attacking your screen and eating up each of the windows and all of your work.

The software creators tout this as a feature that allows you to give your eyes a rest. In my opinion the effect is surprisingly unnatural, but in a way it forces you to take a step back and remember that you’ve been sitting at your computer for a full three hours straight…time for a break!

These are only a small sampling of the thousands of hallucinogenic desktop themes and screensavers that are available throughout the Internet. Do you have a favorite that you’ve used before? Share yours in the comments section below.

5 Ways to Make Your Own Screensavers (Windows)

Saikat Basu — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:01:43 +0000

If you are reading this on your own “˜personal’ computer, you will agree that computers are indeed that ““ personal. Screensavers for many are maybe a thing of the past, once being needed to prevent phosphor “˜burn-ins’ on CRT and plasma monitors. Today we use it mostly for visual appeal.

And that takes us to the download pages of the many screensaver sites out there. The one problem? They aren’t too personal or one never knows which one could be a malware pushing host.

To have the best of both worlds, why not make some of our own? Here are some ways to make your own screensaver without all the coding mumbo jumbo.

The Easiest Way To Make A Screensaver

It’s right there in Win XP and Vista!

Win XP

Arrange your desired screensaver photos in a folder of your choice (or use the default My Pictures folder).
Right click anywhere on the desktop to access the Display Properties applet. Select the Screen Saver tab and then drill down to Screen saver ““ My Pictures Slideshow ““ Settings.
Configure the settings according to the options given and your first self made screen saver is ready to roll.

Vista

Vista makes it even easier to organize your photos through the Windows Photo Gallery feature. Within it are the tools to turn your pictures into a screensaver.

Click on File ““ Screensaver ““ Settings.
Choose Screen Saver list, and then select Photos.
The Settings for the screensaver allows you to further customize the screensaver -

You can show only pictures with a particular tag : Type the tag in the With this tag box that is associated with the pictures.
Display only pictures with a particular rating : Click a star rating on the With this rating or higher list.
Apply a slide show theme to your screen saver : Select one from the Use this theme list.
Play your pictures and videos in random order : Check the Shuffle contents box.

The PowerPoint Way

We all get those high impact motivational PowerPoint attachments in our inbox sometime or the other. We can turn these into engaging screensavers quite easily with the help of PowerPoint 2007. I have one which shuffles around motivational quotes whenever my computer goes inactive.

Open the presentation that will become your screensaver in PowerPoint 2007.
Click on Office Button ““ Save As ““ Other Formats to open the Save As window.
Through the Save As window, select an empty folder or create a new one to hold the PowerPoint images.
Enter any file name you want. In the Save As Type dropdown scroll down to select any of the image formats (GIF, JPG, TIFF, PNG, BMP). Click Save.

PowerPoint gives an option to save every slide or the current slide only as an image. Select one to click OK in the next dialog box to finish this part of the process.
The screensaver can then be activated using the Display Properties ““ Screensaver tab as mentioned earlier.

Note: This method though fails to retain any animations, transitions and embedded rich media present in the original PowerPoint slide.

The Picasa Way

Picasa is one of the best free photo management apps out there and it has a nifty feature which allows you to set screensaver properties.

Open Picasa and click on the Tools menu.
Select Configure Screensaver. The system’s Display Properties applet appears with the Screen Saver tab active.
The Settings button takes us into the configurable part of Google Photos Screensavers. Set the photo transition styles (collage, wipe, fade, pan and zoom etc.) from a dropdown, the photo duration (between 0 to 24 seconds) with the slider and photo captions with the checkbox.
Google Photos Screensaver gives us many sources ““ Picasa collection, online Google Web album, public photo sites with photo feeds and specific folders to choose from. The Configure button for each source allow for individual settings.
Click OK to save your changes.

The Flickr Way

You can get photo feeds from Flickr using Google Photos Screensaver. Another option is to use an open source tool called Flickr.NET Screensaver. This small application gets photos from Flickr and displays them as a screensaver. It enables you to select a wide range of photos, including your own, your contacts, and your favorites or from a group or global tag.

You can also get photos that are locked as private through an authentication which checks your permission to view a private Flickr album. The download is small at 423 KB and all it requires is .Net Framework 2.0 to install and run.

The application can be run from the Display Properties applet. Choose Flickr in the dropdown list of the applet and to configure the Settings.
Choose from the three ““ Per User, Per Group or Everyone, to source your photos. A few sub-options help to narrow down your choices.
The Options tab is where you can play around with most of the screensaver display and duration settings. For instance, the three Drawing Methods (Plain, Postcard, and Moving) control how the photos will be rendered on the screen.

With 3 Billion plus images to choose from, that’s a lot of stock for your screensaver.

The Flash Way

If you want rich and animated content for your screensaver then Flash is the way to go. And InstantStorm fits the job. This free Windows only software helps you to create Flash based screensavers as executable files.

The user just has to choose the SWF file, configure the options and compile it into an executable file for installation as a screensaver. An integrated settings dialog designer allows you to customize the content of the screensaver’s settings dialog which is accessed through the Settings button in system display properties. Screensaver preview and settings dialog preview allows you to check out your work before you compile it into an executable.

InstantStorm is compatible with Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista.

Even though I am among those who believe that the best screensaver is to power off the monitor, I have never resented a self created and personal screensaver for myself.

Are you among those who like to put a personal touch on your screens through a self made screensaver? What’s your favored method to make your own screensavers? Let us know.

Two Great ‘n Simple Nerdy Office Pranks to Play On Friends!

Simon Slangen — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:01:57 +0000

Science has proven that nearly every single human possesses a sadistic side. I totally agree – few things work better to brighten up your day than a prank with friends or colleagues.

Today we’re focusing on two simple nerdy pranks.

We’ll start by laying out two basic rules – to ensure some special effects.

The first one, never do half work, which applies for both of us. Work on the details, the finishing touch is often as important as the basics.

Secondly, don’t plan the prank if you can’t follow through (with a little Dr. Horrible nostalgia), is for the most part a you-rule and pretty self-explanatory. Let the prank play itself out.

The Blue Screen of Death

The Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) is one of the most infamous Microsoft characteristics, and one of the biggest pro-Mac arguments (although the blame lies most often with third-party software).

It’s the horror of every Windows user, a screen that appears when the kernel, or a driver running in kernel mode, encounters an error from which it cannot recover – or, simply said, when your system completely crashes.

Ironically, Microsoft themselves have released a BSOD screensaver – pun definitely intended.

For the casual prankster

The casual prankster can install this screensaver on a friend’s or colleague’s system, and watch the sweet panic emerge.

Download it here
Open the file for a preview
To install, use right-mouse and press install. You can now configure it in the screensaver menu of your system.

The screensaver differentiates between several authentic looking BSOD’s (amongst other things, based on the used system), and even simulates a system reboot. It’s perfect for scaring the hell out of friends or foes alike!

To make ‘em squeal

Oh, so you’re a sadistic one, are you? Good, then we can take this to the next level. There are several ways to make the prank better, and I’m sure you can think of some.

Here’s something to make them really squeal (dude, did he sleep with your girlfriend or what?)

Download the screen saver and hide it somewhere safe.
Create a shortcut to the file, it doesn’t matter where you put it.
Download and install Clavier+

With Clavier+, you can connect the Ctrl + S keyboard shortcut with the shortcut file. You need to use the shortcut file to be able to launch the screensaver.

So basically, whenever your friend or colleague tries saving one of his documents, a BSOD pops up. I speak from personal experience when I say that this is one of the worst things imaginable for your everyday workaholic; your life flashes past before your eyes, you flicker between rage and empty sadness.

Be sure to accompany the prank; not only to enjoy your subject’s reaction, but you might want to stop him from rebooting his computer.

The Broken Screen

Another great scare-prank is to wreck one’s stuff. Of course, not really damaging it, that kind of takes the joke away.

No, the trick is to make them think their stuff is wrecked, so you can all get a big laugh out of it when it proves one of your pranks.

slworking2 and the_alxndr have both uploaded one hell of a great wallpaper on Flickr. What’s so great about it is that it shows your computer monitor as though it got hit – hard.

You can download them respectively here and here.

For the casual prankster

Pick your favourite, and use it as the default wallpaper. Next, right-click on your taskbar, go to properties, and auto-hide the taskbar.

Also right-click on your desktop, and deselect the ‘Show Desktop Items’ option in View.

Now close or minimize all open windows, go hide somewhere safe and enjoy the show!

To spice it up

If you want to do it right, make it look right. Throw some stuff on the ground and tilt the monitor. Also, disconnect his keyboard and mouse if you want to play the prank for a little longer.

Adding a final touch

Depending on your personality and acting skill, you can experience the prank up close. If people who know you would think this even remotely possible, stay in the room until he arrives, with a blunt object (like a bat or a hard ball) in your hands, and an oh-shit look on your face; don’t say anything, just give him a wide-eyed stare and slightly parted lips as if you want to say something but don’t know what.

Do you know any other pranks? Of course you do! Don’t be shy, and share them in the comments.

Use Videos As A Screensaver Or Wallpaper [Windows]

Varun Kashyap — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:01:15 +0000

You have seen pipes, the Windows logo and even slideshows of photos as computer screensavers. How about the prospect of using your family videos (or anything else for that matter) as a screensaver on your Windows desktop?

Well there is a tool from Microsoft that allows you to use videos as a screensaver. Its called Microsoft Video Screensaver.

The download requires you to verify the genuineness of your copy of Windows. Once that is done, the installation is simple and a breeze. You can then access “Video Screensaver” from the “Display Properties” box and then hopping over to the “Screen Saver” tab.

Select “Video Screensaver” from the drop down list and click on “Settings” to choose the video you would like to play. You can choose to play the included default video giving you a view of countries all over the world (kind of lame to be frank) or you can choose your own videos.

Just put all the videos you would like to play in a separate folder if you don’t already have one and point the settings dialog to it. That’s it. You now have a video screensaver waiting for your computer to get idle! I tried the tool with wmv and avi files and it seemed to work flawlessly with both of them.

With that out of the way, now what if you want to get Windows Vista Dreamscene functionality (animated or video wallpapers) ? For similar functionality you can try DreamsceneXP. Dreamscene XP gives you 7 dreamscenes in a variety of resolutions. Follow the following steps to get it running :

Download the dreamscene of your choice.
Extract to any location, Open up display properties and browse to the extracted location and click on index.htm.

Click “apply” and presto you have an animated background!

While Dreamscene limits you to 7 choices, you can use another option (actually more of a hack) to play any of your videos as the desktop background. You can use VLC media player to play a video file in the background as wallpaper.

Choose the video you want to play as background, or optionally create a playlist if you want to play more than one.
Once up and running, right click within the player and check wallpaper.
If you don’t get the wallpaper option go to Settings > Preferences > Video > Output Modules > Direct X and check “Enable Wallpaper Mode”

Also you might want to enable repeating playlist by default so that the background doesn’t turn black after the video finishes running. For this go to Settings > Preferences > Playlist and check “Repeat All”.

There you have it – a video as your desktop background. If the taskbar button bothers you and you want to get rid of it, try something like Trayconizer. Since VLC supports a multitude of formats you can use virtually any file as the background.

Whn it comes to using videos as wallpapers, you may try the previously mentioned methods of using any of your screensavers as the desktop background.

Do you know of any other application that offers a similar functionality? Or have you used the desktop background or screensavers creatively in other ways? Let us know in comments

8 Apps Which Will Definitely Spice Up Your Desktop [Mac Only]

Jackson Chung — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:01:13 +0000

Your desktop is probably the one thing on your Mac which you stare at day in, day out. It is also the most configurable – with the right applications, of course. If you’re bored out of your life with the default wallpapers and screen savers which Apple provides, read on. This article will definitely bring some long awaited excitement to your desktop and will probably lift your mood as well. Sit back and enjoy your desktop. Never thought you’d say those words, huh?

Wallpaper Managers

Why would you want to stare at the same old wallpaper all the time when you have the option to rotate fresh, new beautiful images from respectable repositories? Here are four applications which will do the job.

Pic-a-POD

Pic-a-POD downloads and saves the picture of the day from National Geographic, Astronomy, Earth Science and Wikipedia and you can have it automatically set your desktop’s wallpaper to rotate randomly between the pictures. Besides using only the current day picture, you can go back in time to download any picture of the day and save it. I’d recommend using Pic-a-POD if you really enjoy pictures of nature, space and science. They’re not very artsy but still beautiful and way better than the infamous Mac clown fish wallpaper.

Pic-a-POD can be used on both Mac OS X and Windows.

Vladstudio Companion

Vladstudio is among one of the many great repositories for desktop wallpapers. Their artwork is eerily gorgeous and you can’t help but go “wow!”. Like Pic-a-POD, it can also be set to randomly change the wallpaper after a certain interval or you could manually change it yourself.

Vladstudio Companion is available for Mac OS X and Windows.

Desktoptopia

Another great repository for beautiful wallpapers is Desktoptopia and hey, what do you know? They have a background manager too. Desktoptopia makes it very easy to get bewitching wallpapers on your screen. It works very similarly to Vladstudio Companion. Just turn it on and by default, it is set to automatically change your wallpaper every 5 minutes to an invigorating new background.

The wallpapers from Desktoptopia are of a different genre and feels very somewhat disparate from the ones which Vladstudio provides. Depending on your taste, you’ll need to choose between Desktoptopia and Vladstudio Companion. Or you could switch between the both of them.

Desktoptopia is available for Mac OS X but they’ve got a beta version for Windows as well.

DeskLickr

I wrote about DeskLickr in my article about Flickr applications. Head on over there if you haven’t read it yet. Basically, DeskLickr will pull images from Flickr and sets them as your wallpaper. These pictures are selected by the tags, interestingness and groups which you will have to set to retrieve the pictures you prefer, rather than any random photo of someone’s family dog.

DeskLickr is only available for Mac OS X

Hide Your Desktop Icons

Assuming that you’ve changed your wallpaper to a picturesque background, you’d probably want to enjoy it. How are you suppose to do that if your desktop is cluttered with icons? Some say, a cluttered desktop drastically reduces productivity and concentration.

Camouflage is by far the best application I’ve found which hides everything from the desktop, leaving only the wallpaper for your admiration. Unlike other icon-hiding applications like Desktopple or Desktop Curtain, Camouflage is not affected by ExposÃ©. So, pressing F11 does not reveal your true desktop. With Camouflage and your icons out of the way, you can now thoroughly enjoy the wallpapers from Desktoptopia or Vladstudio.

Camouflage runs on Mac OS X only.

Run A Screen Saver As Your Desktop Background

This is purely eye-candy. Setting a screen saver to run as your desktop background will definitely get you and the people around you excited because we’re so used to static wallpapers. A dynamic wallpaper will surely lift a couple of eyebrows. Be aware this is quite graphic-intensive and will require a relatively powerful Mac. Running this on my MacBook 2.4GHz didn’t affect it much performance-wise, although the core temperature did go up a degree or two. With that said, this can still be quite a lot of fun.

There are 3 applications here which will do the job: Screeni, MagicDesktopSwitch and Wallsaver. All of them are equally good but I prefer Wallsaver because it can be set to launch on startup and run automatically. Both Screeni and MagicDesktopSwitch are better only if you want to set the screen saver as the desktop background periodically.

If you want a couple of screen savers to start off, this Matrix screen saver is always a hit; and this old school flip-flop clock and Lego screen savers you might want to take a look at.

Special Treat

I wasn’t going to include this in at first because it isn’t actually an application but I thought that it would also help to “spice” up your regular desktop. DevMode widget turns on Development mode on your Dashboard to allow you to place widgets directly on your desktop! It’s actually possible to do this in Terminal with a specific command but this widget makes it possible for everyone to have their favourite widgets easily accessible on the desktop.

All you need to do is add the widget to Dashboard, and click on it once to turn Development mode on. Click and hold on any widget you want then press F12 (or the Dashboard button on newer keyboards) to close Dashboard and viola! You now have the widget out of Dashboard. You can repeat the process for any widget you want.

If you want to get rid of any widgets which you’ve shifted onto the desktop, press the Option key while hovering your cursor over the widget, you’ll see a ‘close’ icon appear. Click on that and the widget will suck itself right off your desktop.

How would you spice up your desktop? Enjoyed any of the suggestions in this article? Tell us what you’d use to turn a boring desktop into something you’d be pleased to gawk at.

MakeUseOf » screensaver

How To Change The Screensaver on Ubuntu 11.10

It’s All GNOME 3

Switching To Better Screensavers

Configuration

Reverting Back

Conclusion

How To Disable Your Windows Screensaver With Motion Detection

The Motion-Detection Screensaver Solution

6 Awesomely Geeky Screensavers for Mac and PC Users

PolarClock

System 47

Electric Sheep

WorldClock

GeoCodEarth

iTunes Album Art

5 Awesome High Tech Screensavers [Windows]

5 Awesome High Tech Screensavers

The 10 Creative Ways To Use A Screensaver

A Temporary Shield To Secure Your Files

Make Your Own Desktop Art Gallery

Jog Your Memory With A Reminder

Five Seconds Of Motivation

Get Digg-ing

Your Own Blogosphere Telescope

The Same For RSS Feeds & Twitter

Screensavers & RSS feeds

Screensavers & Tweets

Some Random Wikipedia Browsing

As Your Desktop Weatherman

Screensaver & Learning

Hallucinogenic Desktop Themes & Screensavers

Putting Hallucinogenic Desktop Themes & Screensavers To Good Use

1. Drempels – A Screensaver and Desktop Theme in One

2. Really Slick Screensavers – A Collection of Mind-Bending Imagery

3. Znow Desktop – Use Hallucinations to Relieve Eye Tension

5 Ways to Make Your Own Screensavers (Windows)

The Easiest Way To Make A Screensaver

Win XP

Vista

The PowerPoint Way

The Picasa Way

The Flickr Way

The Flash Way

Two Great ‘n Simple Nerdy Office Pranks to Play On Friends!

The Blue Screen of Death

For the casual prankster

To make ‘em squeal

The Broken Screen

For the casual prankster

To spice it up

Adding a final touch

Use Videos As A Screensaver Or Wallpaper [Windows]

8 Apps Which Will Definitely Spice Up Your Desktop [Mac Only]

Wallpaper Managers

Pic-a-POD

Vladstudio Companion

Desktoptopia

DeskLickr

Hide Your Desktop Icons

Run A Screen Saver As Your Desktop Background

Special Treat