Hi folks,
Just for the record the use of screensavers is a complete other than used to be.
No. You don't really need a screensaver any more. It used to be, back in the old days (about 10 years ago), CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors needed to be kept busy so they wouldn't be damaged. Leaving a monitor on with its display unchanged for hours at a time would burn up the phosphorescent coating wherever the image was, or behind whatever text or graphics were displayed. This would etch the characters or image into the screen because that area could no longer be illuminated properly. You would see a ghost image of that old image whenever the monitor was on. Once it happened, the only cure was to replace the monitor. Screensavers were created to keep things moving on the screen and eliminate this problem.
Monitors have advanced to the point where burn-in is very rare. The newer flat screen monitors are a totally different technology. You can leave your computer on for days, and your monitor would be just fine. Most home users have a tendency to turn their machine off at night. This is good for both the computer, the operating system and the monitor. They all have a chance to rest and refresh themselves so when you crank that machine up in the morning, everything is raring to go.
With My Pictures folder you certainly don't need to toss the old screensavers out. Now you can actually use them to keep your computer screens busy AND entertaining, or gracefully display your favorite photos when you aren't working, or need to walk away from the machine for a while. There is no need to set your screensaver to activate after 5 or 10 minutes of inactivity. Depending on how you use your computer, sitting back to think for a few minutes and having to jiggle the mouse to turn the screensaver off can be a pain. I have mine set for 45 minutes, but it is pretty rare to see Mrs. Wizard's machine idle for that long.
Windows XP has a slideshow screensaver right at your fingertips. All you need to do is supply the photos, and remember where you put them. Fortunately, Windows XP even makes that easier. The My Pictures folder is the perfect place to store all your photos. It is very handy.Click the Start button at the bottom left of your main screen and you will see a shortcut to the My Pictures folder in the same area as yourMy Documents folder.Actually it is a subfolder in the My Documents folder, but Microsoft thought it was important enough to have its very own shortcut on the Start Menu. display propertiesRight click the My Pictures folder and choose My PicturesExplore to get a good look at it. You can create other folders within the My Pictures folder for even better organization of your photos and other images. Once you have the My Pictures folder open, you can treat it just like any other folder. You can view your image files as Thumbnails, rather than just file names by clicking the Views button at the top of the window and choosing Thumbnails.
To use the My Pictures Screensaver, right click any empty area on your Desktop. Choose Properties to open the Display Properties window. Click the Screen Saver tab. click the little down arrow to the right of the box of choices and choose the My Pictures Slideshow. Click the Settings button to make adjustments to the size of your images, the length of time you want each image to appear, turn transition effects between pictures on or off and even choose a different folder within the My Pictures folder (or any other folder) where the images you want to use are stored.
You might want to create several different folders with images for different moods or themes. It is really all up to you. If you decide you want to remove an image from your slideshow, simply move it to another folder. Any images you add to that folder will appear in your slideshow screensaver.
So we are up to date with the function of screensavers now, conclusion: "only strictly recreational".
polonus
