Picking A Good Screen Saver
By Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS
Submitted: 12-20-08
There are a great many screensavers out there for your computer. Do you know how to tell a good one from the rest? The good ones, being true screensavers do exactly what their name implies. On the other hand if you don’t use a good one, you probably just have a screen decoration using the name screensaver.
Many people don’t know there is a difference between screensavers, they see the name screensaver and trust the software for what it is supposed to do. In this article I will discuss these differences and how you can spot them in your screensaver software.
There are just as many free downloadable screensavers out there, as there are retail screensavers. Retail screensavers have some very good ones as well as some not so good ones. This also applies to the free downloadable screensavers, … there are good ones and not so good ones. Regardless if you download free screensavers or if you purchase them, you should know some things about identifying a good screensaver.
The first of some important things is watching for a screensaver where most of the picture remains still and in one position while it plays. A example of this would be a picture of a fairground but the only moving part of the entire picture is a marry-go-round. Everything else remains still and in one spot. This is a perfect example of a screensaver that can etch your computer screen. Another example is a monitor I saw at our local Goodwill store when I was looking for music CD’s last summer. As I walked the isles of the store being a little nosey, I saw a used computer monitor on the shelf for sale. The monitor wasn’t plugged in, and I saw the screen of this monitor was severely etched by a cheap screen saver. It was very clear which screensaver did it too. It was one of the Coca Cola screensavers that are out there. This one was the one with the bears sitting in the snow watching fireworks. The image of the bears sitting in the snow was etched into the lower half of the monitor’s screen. This is exactly what I’m talking about.
Secondly, any screensaver that has a still frame or border around the changing images and is consistent through the playing of the screensaver is another type of screensaver that can etch your computer screen. Damage like this can happen on computers that leave screensavers run for days on end, such as office or other business computers that leave screen savers play for entire weekends, over night and during holiday shut downs. One may ask, “how can you tell if a computer screen is etched, and what does it mean?”.
Identifying a etched computer screen is very easy. Simply turn off the power to the monitor, wait a moment for the monitor to settle after the power was shut off. Now look closely at the computer screen while the power is still off. If you can see the images or shadows of your computers images in the black screen, … this means your computer screen is etched and the monitor is permanently damaged. This is what screensavers are supposed to avoid. However if using a screensaver (example) that uses a frame or border around its images, it is likely after long term use that the frame or border of such a screen saver will etch into the screen. This means the shadow for the frame or border will be visible on the screen when the power is off. This also holds true for screensavers that use logo’s, names or clocks in the corner of the screensaver that don’t move and hold the same spot while the screensaver is playing.
This is why the ideal screensaver is one that blacks out the whole monitor leaving a dark screen with no pixels at all being lit-up, … just a black screen until you bump the mouse or keyboard. In fact, this black screen option is one of the choices for your screensaver if you have Windows XP, … go into the control panel then choose the display icon, then click on screensaver and go down to the screensaver called ‘blank’. Yes, this option works on systems running single and dual monitors.
Looking at the Windows XP screensavers is a good way to show a person a example of perfect screensavers. Super dark backgrounds and the ones that do show images, … the images don’t hold the same position throughout the playing of the screensaver. They constantly move around the black background avoiding the possibility of any etching.
After reading this article, one might ask “okay, I just noticed I have one of the less than favorable screensavers with stationary images, … should I replace it?”.
Actually that is up to you. You can replace it if you desire. You can also turn off your monitor or set up the monitor to shut off entirely if not used after a certain amount of time. I have my computer set up to show black screens after five minutes of no use, and after twenty minutes the computer shuts off both of my monitors until I bump the mouse or keyboard. Setting up your computer to shut off the monitors can be done through the control panel of your Windows operating system and going through the power options. This feature can easily extend the life of a monitor because it remembers to shut the monitor down even when you forget, … plus it saves a little electricity.
If you choose to replace the screensaver, … before spending money on another screensaver, try downloading some shareware or freeware screensavers first. Then if you are not satisfied or didn’t find something you like you can exercise the option to buy one. This way you tried your free resources before spending money.
Remember, … a good screensaver is one where the entire screen is constantly changing, nothing stays in one spot without moving.
