Number 307 - December 2008

Vista Fun
by Chris Taylor Oct 2008 newsletter of the Ottawa PC Users' Group
If you are getting tired of your wallpaper and want something a little more lively, you can run a screensaver as your wallpaper. As I write this, I have the flowing code from The Matrix as my background.    Open a CMD prompt by clicking on the Start button, typing in cmd.exe and pressing Enter. In the CMD window that opens, type in the name of your screensaver's file, including the .scr file extension followed by a space and /p65552 and press the enter key. For example, to run the Mystify screensaver as your wallpaper, in the box your would type;    mystify.scr /p65552    The screensaver will start running on top of your existing wallpaper. Unfortunately, it hides the desktop icons, but otherwise, everything is fully functional. The screensaver will add a button on the task bar. To end the screensaver, right-click on the screen saver's button on the taskbar. The screensaver will take over the space used by the taskbar and the sidebar. You can then press Alt-F4 to end the screensaver. Or you can press the Windows key on your keyboard to have the taskbar and sidebar re-appear.	The screensavers that come with Vista are as follows;    * Aurora.scr    * Bubbles.scr    * logon.scr    * Mystify.scr    * PhotoScreensaver.scr    * Ribbons.scr    * scrnsave.scr    * ssBranded.scr    * ssText3d.scr    You can also look in your Windows and Windows\System32 folders for any other files with the file extension .scr    It is worth noting that many screensavers take a considerable percentage of your processor's horsepower, so you might find your machine sluggish while the screensaver is running as wallpaper. The ones that come with Vista use a minimal amount of CPU.
Number 307 - December 2008