Active background - trick

[Barman58]

Not sure if this has been posted before but if it has - sorry to repeat

An interesting trick with the built in screensavers that also work in Windows 7

To run a screensaver as a background wallpaper image ...


Open a command prompt by clicking on Start and typing cmd and hit enter.

In command window type the name of the screen saver followed by a space and /p65552
For example to run the ribbons screen saver do the following:


In command window type ribbons.scr /p65552
(Note: The space between ribbons.scr and /p65552)

A couple of other screen saver that can be run are:

aurora.scr /p65552
bubbles.scr /p65552
Photoscreensaver.scr /p65552
ssbranded.scr /p65552

 

[Airbot]

Is this an attempt to substitute dreamscenes Nigel? LOL
Are they moving images or do they turn into static backgrounds? How would you "undo" this?

 

[Barman58]

Hi Arron,
Fully moving images - really

it actually creates an icon on the taskbar for the .SCR which may be closed without a problem, well so far anyway

It's a trick that also worked on Vista - A modern day "Easter Egg" from the MS UI team I think

For younger readers Easter eggs were small pieces of programming code left in the release versions of early MS software for no other reason than the programmers having a little fun - the method to unlock these little gems would mysteriously find there way into the public domain - A bit like Beta builds from eastern europe

 

[Airbot]

Sounds pretty cool, I never knew about it, as you say it works in Vista too.

That's a scary post count you got there.
View attachment 4786

 

[Barman58]

Hi Arron,

I doubt if the count will last

Oh what do you know it seams to have changed

 

[Joan Archer]

I always thought he had the devil in him :devil:

 

[garysgold]

Thanks for the info, Nigel.

I'm sure your right, Joan.

 

[ShaggyJefe]

Sadly it doesn't work on both monitors nice trick nonetheless

 

[LoserDave]

error:

Watermill_3D_Screensaver.scr ' is not recognized as an internal or external comm operable program or batch file.

 

[smarteyeball]

I created a Shortcut and pinned it to the Task Bar-

Target: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe cmd /c Ribbons.scr /p65552

Which works well, but I still have to manually close the cmd window.

Does anyone know how I can get the cmd window to automatically close after running the shortcut?


Despite it's limitations, it's still pretty cool. Goes together nicely with the "Full Transparency" option as well.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/14121-transparency-enable-full-clear-glass-transparency.html




For further tweaking / extra options of the default screens savers:

How to Customize / Tweak Windows Vista ScreenSavers using Registry? - Tweaking with Vishal