What Happened To Screensavers?

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Are screensavers still useful?
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[@zrodger2296]

I remember people running Windows NT as a server wondering why performance dropped when they walked away from the computer. They were (usually) running the 3d pipes screen saver and it sucked up all of the cpu cycles!

[@DryPaperHammerBro]

Yikes

[@kreuner11]

That's some weird process priority, you'd expect screensaver to start with the lowest priority

[@kreuner11]

@@StefanHundhammer I'd expect them to not make it have a screen

[@MegasXLR]

Lmao

[@discovertech843]

It’s funny how a screensaver can do that

[@LizziesLukas]

with the advent of Windows 7 in late 2000s, I've consider the bubble screensavers as part of nostalgia

[@SotraEngine4]

I thought vista introduced them

[@Kasumi_Tashi]

@@SotraEngine4 it did but not that many people liked Vista in the first place

[@user-1billlon]

Windows 7 was in 2009 *YOU THINK THAT* pcs were in 1500s windows xp was in 1990 and vista in 1995?

[@xDLiLi1337]

@@user-1billlon what

[@user-1billlon]

@@xDLiLi1337 he’s saying it was made in late 2000s.

[@AthanImmortal]

My favourite screensaver in the late 90s was a fish tank that had actual 3d tropical fish, and they swam around quite convincingly.

[@betara_indera_gunung_timur]

i remember it even have fps counter, for showcasing how 'powerful' your gpu was at rendering the scene. and if you buy/register it, you can unlock bonus fishes

[@ballistic63]

@@betara_indera_gunung_timur ユーザーネームは逆さだと思うけど

[@betara_indera_gunung_timur]

@@ballistic63 originally it was fine, but for whatever reason, google decided to switch and display it in reverse😓

[@Zenkai76]

Yes I loved that one, it made me feel like I had fish without the hassle of cleaning a fishtank

[@analogrival]

I think it was called SereneScreen

[@coderspy]

I used to work at Office Depot and our Princeton Graphics Super Bright LCD display had our corporate logo burned into it. It apparently wasn't actually burned into the LCD, but the front glass discolored permanently, and you could see our logo when the display was OFF!

[@yamiru3417]

true that why back then you shouldnt be near the screen

[@desertlightning7335]

Reminds me of the telescreens in 1984 that would have a image of BigBrother that would phase in and out.

[@smipy]

Well that's a free advertisement. Hoo ray!!!

[@johnberkers434]

The 3D Pipe Screen Saver would also occasionally render a Teapot, that being a reference shape for some reason.

[@mtspace77]

It was called "the Utah teapot", an early reference for 3D rendering.

[@Roxor128]

The Utah Teapot is a common test object because it has a number of properties good for testing rendering algorithms, such as saddle points (points where the slope is zero, but is not a maximum or minimum), a hole, can self-shadow, and doesn't need to be textured to be recognisable.

[@manoz6194]

Standard primitive shape in 3DS Max. I had endless fun using different materials and shaders on it and blowing it up lol

[@a.c.4054]

@@manoz6194 even before 3DS Max, I remember it in DOS 3D Studio 4.0

[@jeremygeorgia4943]

The teapots would sometimes be substituted for the pipe joints - every few cycles.

[@efficiencygaming3494]

Some of my favorite early computer-related memories involve screensavers. I had one that showed a bunch of macaroni men dancing to the Macarena, and I used to drive my mom insane by letting it play all the time. Of course, you also had the old Windows classics like Pipes, Mystify, Beziers, and many others, which were awesome because you could customize them to use different colors, textures, speeds, and such.

[@micosstar]

bruh

[@Ozymandias1]

Who can forget Johnny Castaway and the Flying Toasters in After Dark?

[@kashiichan]

I sometimes miss the fishtank screensaver.

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

I installed one as a kid that was 3D bootleg LEGO Tetris, you could even move the blocks with the arrow keys! Got broken in a Windows update though.

[@Zeder95]

Computers were such an exciting new world as a kid growing up in the early 2000s. I particularly have a lot of nostalgia for all these autumn and snow/christmas 3D screensavers you could download back in the late 2000s/early 2010s. They feel so cozy and nostalgic.

[@Progress2000]

The 3D text screen saver is actually useful because it can be used to show the time

[@costascostas1760]

I think it may habe been my first 3d experience .. excluding doom carmagedon etc... it was so shiny...

[@morgan5941]

On W98 or xp, you could type in 'volcanoes' and names of different volcanoes appear.

[@kFY514]

I think there's one point missing: screen savers started falling out of favor once power management in monitors became a thing. Nowadays the screen just gets turned off automatically after a period of inactivity instead of displaying flashy images, which achieves the same effect even on screens that can burn in, but makes way more sense from an eco standpoint. It kind of went full circle, as first screensavers were also just blanking the screen, although without completely turning it off.

[@sa3270]

Not to mention the most pertinent point.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

the ecological or power usage impacts are probably barely noticable, having a screensaver is much more exciting than a boring blank screen, if you really care about the enviroment, using public transport is a lot better than making your PC dull

[@JeffDeWitt]

I still miss the flying toasters and "Bad Dog". But one of the most interesting screen savers was SETI@Home. That one actually crunched data from radio telescopes looking for signs of intelligent life. It was the first really big distributing computing project and I was running that screen saver for the whole life of the project.

[@zilog1]

Its amazing that we might actually need screen savers back again with the advent of OLED lmaooo

[@thedopplereffect00]

LG's have a built in screen saver that comes on automatically.

[@gurustarr9277]

Bruh, I realized like two days ago that my phone (huawei mate 30 pro with oled display) has the "ghost" of whatsapp top bar 💀 never thought I would've seen this irl

or you could just change your settings to put your screen to sleep instead

[@cyko5950]

@@gurustarr9277 at least it's not a pornhub logo

[@Puremindgames]

@ Thats for plebs though.

On OLED the best screen saver is a blank screen (there's actually a screen saver named like that), because all pixels are off then. Also this has a neat side effect, that if you use an OLED TV as a monitor, you don't have to wait for the startup sequence which otherwise you have to sit through if you constantly switch on/off the display.

[@ocudagledam]

I was thinking the same. And it would also apply to CRTs, I would imagine.

[@Hauketal]

@@ocudagledam CRTs have the problem of heated cathodes. These are aging with use, but even more with temperature change. Switching them off becomes economical (equipment cost, energy use) for pauses of several hours only.

[@dh123ize]

I'd rather not have a oled screen samsung tv is pretty good

[@watchm4ker]

​@@Hauketal This, pretty much. For most of their time as a primary display, CRT displays did not power-cycle gracefully. Presumably that got fixed in the late 90s/early 2000s with EnergyStar and the introduction of proper standby modes, but by then, LCDs were on the way to replacing them.

[@primus711]

Actually this is old and Actually are the first screen savers called screen blankers

[@jfwfreo]

What really killed the need for a screensaver was power management features where the computer tells the monitor to go to sleep and completly switch off the display. Uses less power than any screensaver and eliminates burn-in no matter what display you have.

[@SotonyaAcckaya]

Unfortunately it is still not a thing with hdmi TVs. PC will try to send your TV to sleep but TV will just display something like "no signal" mark. And even if it will turn itself off after some timeout - it will not only mess with windows resolution, it will also kill sound over HDMI and also will not turn on again on signal from PC(

[@nerd2544]

@@SotonyaAcckaya 1992: screensaver because computer cannot turn off monitor 2022: screensaver because computer (the TV) cannot turn off monitor 30 years of technology innovation 👍

[@MarsHoax]

@@nerd2544 even more funny since hdmi fully supports that kind of information with the dedicated cec pin for communication between devices

[@SotonyaAcckaya]

@@MarsHoax turning off tv completely is not a solution

[@HenryLoenwind]

@@MarsHoax But understandable. The computer speaks DCC to turn off a monitor, but the TV speaks CEC to be controlled by and control a DVD player. Those two are not really compatible because they serve completely different purposes.

[@barnesurban8165]

Those CD/DVD Standby Logos that we were trying to cheer to hit a corner are also very neato screensavers, just hoping that they were integrated to Windows instead of needing to download one

[@scottbutler5]

The real thing that made screen savers obsolete was the ability for the PC to power the screen down. Once you could turn off the monitor automatically it made no sense to keep it on just to show a screen saver.

[@primus711]

That ability was actually around the same time if not before so that isnt true The reason is it takes longer for a monitor to turn on and warm up

[@JohnPaulBuce]

1:29

[@NightshiftCustom]

@@primus711 yes no one wanted to wait for the screen to warm back up

[@Jushwa]

No lol

[@candle86]

Yea no, Windows 3.1 supports Energy Star monitors, meaning it can tell them to go into standby, the issue is when you wake it up it takes a good 5-6 minutes for the screen's brightness to reach full agian.

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

That NES Screensaver is pretty cool. I always thought that a cool background or wallpaper would be some of those early 2000s games with bots. Something like OG Unreal Tournament as a screensaver probably would only use a small portion of a modern CPU, and would be fun to watch.

[@jayaskme2942]

Man, this episode makes me miss the screen antics Screensaver

[@quantumleaper]

@@jayaskme2942 If you still have a copy it might work with Windows 11 or Windows 10, the only ones I have some problems with are abandoned Shareware screensavers

[@blazerorb]

Man, Roller Coaster Tycoon would be a great screensaver. The menu basically did it by showing made parks

[@NigelMelanisticSmith]

@@blazerorb you're absolutely right, that does sound great. Especially with OpenRCT2 being so smoothly optimized

[@blazerorb]

@@NigelMelanisticSmith I saw in a random short recently that rollercoaster tycoon was written in assembly lol

[@ironcito1101]

Another factor is that modern screens power on immediately, so you can set them to just power off after a period of inactivity, and use them right away when you return. That's especially true for laptops, where turning the screen off saves a lot of energy.

[@karlrovey]

Unfortunately, certain programs don't seem to like that. If I have certain programs open when the screen turns off, they won't work correctly until I re-start.

[@Granny_Gaming]

Bring them back

[@ryanhamstra49]

You can install them. I have pipes installed on my windows 10 PC

[@blunderingfool]

@@ryanhamstra49 And I have all of the classic windows 98 ones and a few from the Plus!98 pack. Great variety.

[@Granny_Gaming]

@@ryanhamstra49 I know

[@onbox6276]

With OLED burn-in we need them again

[@_GhostMiner]

Just extract the Screensaver files from XP and put them into the system32 folder. If some of them don't work, copy them to Syswow64 as well.

[@LendriMujina]

What I like about them is that they're one of the most unobtrusive ways to have a little extra personalization (which it feels like all the major operating systems are trying to take away more and more). The ones from back in the day still work if you have the files, and the files are not hard to find.

[@toshineon]

About them taking away personalization more and more is true. I was so pissed when I transitioned to Windows 10 from 7, and you could no longer use the classic theme. I always used it because I like how unintrusive and simple it is, but Microsoft just decided that no, you'll use the default theme and you'll like it. Now all you can do is change colors, woohoo.

[@snoozbuster]

That's cause those scr files are really just exe files in disguise

[@persona83]

I still use the starfield screensaver. Always loved it.

[@SuperFunkmachine]

@@toshineon I got an add on to get that back, what's wrong with a real start menu? I had that menu since i was 5 an used it every day for a decade.

[@MichaelBosley]

Yup, I'm rocking the Flying Toasters from the After Dark pack on my Windows 11 PC. Although some screensavers like 3D maze run way too fast on new PC's, probably due to the clock speed.

[@ludicrits]

I miss these. Please bring them back. Especially with oled monitors coming out now.

[@BasicallyWiz]

It's still a thing. Just search for "Change Screen Saver" in your windows search.

[@quantum5661]

they never left, it was you who changed.

[@Walczyk]

They never left my dude

[@quantumleaper]

My only problem is when I updated to Windows 10, something broke the screensaver, and updating to Windows 11, didn't fix the problem, even though all the screensavers will work if I test them.,

[@quantumleaper]

@@BasicallyWiz Problem with my Windows is if I do a search it has one list of the screensaver and I go through Personalize from the desktop, it shows a different list of screensavers with only 1/2 showing up in both lists and it has a different screensaver selected on each also.

[@marscaleb]

I still use screensavers because I just like looking at them. Not the boring default ones, but advanced picture slideshows or some 3D scenes. I also kinds of use it as a gauge for how long I've been absent. It may not be a critical thing, but it still is nice.

[@mike123abc]

Now you save power by simply putting the LCD into standby. Old LCDs had fluorescent tubes which would wear if turned off and on too often, modern ones have LED backlights which do wear by turning off and on. So, save power by turning off.

[@abysspegasusgaming]

Yeah, wrong on the fluorescent tube wear out. Those became worn out due to them getting a one-two punch from thermal and phosphor breakdowns from the high voltage to light the very thin tube inside and the heat that the said tube generated from said high voltage to light it in the first place, otherwise, they are nothing more than a very tiny fluorescent lamp that can be switched on and off repeatedly with practically no negative effect, unless the ballast/driver kicked the bucket first, then it just wouldn't light up. Concerning LED backlit displays, the tech has come a long way and it's safe to leave a display running, and in some applications, it's necessary to keep the display running full time, that's why (auto) dimming the display is a thing.

[@lucassilvas1]

That and OLED panels turn on/off near instantly, so there's truly no need for screensavers.

[@MrEdrftgyuji]

I'd rather keep it on. It costs next to nothing, and it annoys the eco warriors.

[@MegasXLR]

I remember on Windows XP I had created a custom boot logo with KITT from Knight Rider, and the Windows loading bars were just where his scanner was and it looked awesome! I also changed the lockscreen background to a Knight Rider picture as well as made a KITT scanner screensaver for my PC. Golden days :D

[@s1gne]

I used to love the After Dark screensavers, they had a nice aquarium screensaver plus ofcourse the flying toasters.

[@JBrinx18]

Flying toasters? What about AI battles of rock paper scissors, but in a beat em up style game? Or a Rat Race? Or all the other ones they used to have? After Dark was awesome!

[@gooddypm]

I’m still using Flying Toasters win Win11

[@quantumleaper]

@@gooddypm My Flying Toasters are on Floppy Disks, I think.

[@cellsheet]

It was dark side of the mac screensavers for me on Mac OS 9, I loved those as a kid

[@CozyMoose]

I seriously don’t understand why someone hasn’t made a modern After Dark. I’d gladly pay 30-40 for a single license and I own multiple puters.

[@Kevin-mx1vi]

One of the best was Dream Aquarium, which displayed a very realistic tropical aquarium as either a screen saver or as a stand-alone app, and which was highly configurable with different backgrounds and fish. They even pooped ! Sadly it seems to have been abandoned by its creator - a genuine Hollywood special effects guy who created the "river horses" that washed away the Nazgul in LoTR.

[@chronology556]

They will be useful for OLED screens, I think.

[@broj_]

for my LG C2 I just set a black screensaver to give the illusion of auto wake up

[@mudgie0205]

@@broj_that’s a dope idea

[@SensationsRim]

LG C1 55" with black screen saver set to 2 minutes here

[@Nico1a5]

Why not flashing rainbow instead of black?

[@Summer-xu8qu]

It's also useful to put your display to standby mode instead of wasting electricity playing fancy animations for no one, I think.

[@rowan7929]

damn, i know i played a lot with it. experimenting with the settings, options and so much more. at times it was more fun than playing actual games.

[@KingMuttley]

The Insaniquarium Deluxe screensaver was my favourite back in the day. Virtual fish tank just loaded up and chilling there. Wasn't so great since there were a lot of pixels that didn't move around, but heck still looked great and I could always check how my fish were doing without having to load up the game

[@miscellaneousproductions]

Loved that game

[@lander77477]

3:43 That pixel shifting or whatever they call it doesn't prevent burn in at all, it just blurs that outline of the text on the burned in ghost

[@Opal-Cherry]

This makes me miss my childhood. I remember watching the screensavers pipes on the computer.

[@scottfranco1962]

I've seen burnin on LCDs as well. I suspect one factor with screen savers is that most monitors and computers are designed to power down the screen on no activity, and a screen saver would stop that from happening, defeating the purpose of it.

[@joshwilliams7692]

I think you overlooked the most important reason. No one keeps their monitors on anymore. Old monitors had to be manually switched off. Modern ones automatically shut off when your computer is inactive.

[@pokemon3742]

Old ones also had some "warm-up" time

[@user-ejxomyq]

you have to wait for them to warm up, modern monitors only take a few seconds to warm up so people would rather turn it off.

[@junehanabi1756]

i've never had any of my monitors turn off, i never even turn off my computer. Everything stays on 24/7, logged in, programs open, ready to go as soon as I wake up and sit down at my computer

[@CramcrumBrewbringer]

@@user-ejxomyq Dude I forgot about that.

[@CramcrumBrewbringer]

@@junehanabi1756 You should shutdown or at the very least restart your computer once a day, as it will greatly speed up the computer. Also, electric bill and computer life.

[@Marc_Fuchs_1985]

I am using a 4K LG OLED TV as my my main computer monitor for years now. No burn in, due to 2 things I do with it: ▪︎ It always runs at highest efficiency setting > low brightness, but bright enough and more relaxing for the eyes ▪︎ I got pure black image files, which I show in full screen whenever I don't need the monitor for a little while. The TV stays completely on, but the actual display receives no wear due to no pixels illuminated.

[@Mih52]

Wallpaper Engine also has this feature to apply screen saver with your favourate live wallpapers. I have applied it and it looks cool just sitting there, ideling in the background.

[@DharmaJannyter]

I had hoped it would also explain why they fell out of *fashion* for LCD's despite no longer being necessary. Maybe it's partly because the screen saver hasn't been a default in later editions of Windows.

[@ClayMann]

Wallpaper Engine continues the great tradition of mostly meaningless screensavering. I like it and you can't stop me.

[@KISSFanDan1995]

I downloaded a pack of windows 98/XP screensavers for my windows 11 gaming PC and they all work perfectly. I’m currently using the Starfield one.

[@02chevyguy]

Where did you find that? As we're in holiday mode, I'd like to get a Christmas screensaver.

[@bite-sizedshorts9635]

@@02chevyguy Flying Toilets with rolls of toilet paper was fun. The After Dark collection.

[@ChromeDestiny]

I'm still on Windows 10, I use the flying toasters.

[@reptilez13]

I still use VGA CRTs and the ones from the mid 00s are my fav, for PC gaming and retro consoles (via Component to VGA upscaling through a GBS Control) Flat Glass especially looks amazing. I'll keep in mind I need a screensaver ;)

[@DgtlRnn042]

This is a good explanation as to why we don't NEED screensavers anymore, but not why we actively got rid of them. Screensaver files are executable files, as in programs... and could easily become a vector for hacking, or virus infection. As a result they have been buried because they are a minor security risk, especially in large computer labs.

[@scirrhia_kruden]

Also they actively waste electricity. They only have negatives, now.

[@mingyi456]

Why not make them into video files instead of executable files then?

[@DgtlRnn042]

@@mingyi456 Not a bad idea. We would still need a program to playback the videos. Since it would be standardized we would only have to harden the video player. Would still be bad for a business environment, but would be good for consumers.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@DgtlRnn042 Harden them? Against video files which already have malicious code embedded or just 3rd party access while they are running screensavers?

[@quantum8522]

Thanks, this video unfortunately didn't answer the main question that it was set to answer lol

[@LaserFur]

1:01 is that the polybius game? That is one rare burned in display.

[@allenwiddows7631]

When I think about screensavers from the ‘90s, I think 2 words-After Dark… Talk about a crazy collection of screensavers and games…

[@wilhelmsarasalo3546]

I thought it was really cool to see a faint image of a screen I designed years earlier when I went to see a client. Video Archives and Lou's Records are good examples from the 1980's. No screen savers back then and it was a cash register with my enterprise software. But it did burn a faint image.

[@matsv201]

Well.. there is a bit of history missing here. In late 90-tys monitors that could turn of the canon but not the heater become more common. They could turn of the picture while still being on. Typically the monitor powered down in 3 steps. First the screensaver came one. Then really just like a warning of the monitor starting to power down. Then the electron canon turned of. That would turn on a gain pretty quickly, like in half a second or something. Then the heater would turn of, making the monitor technically being in a sort of standby mode. Its also worth saying that in the mid 90-tys speed heaters become thing. Normally the heater is at a nominal level, but with the speed haters they cranked up the heating power to the quadruple in about 5-10 seconds heating the screen up much faster.

[@matsv201]

@@stargazer7644 well. You already had it

[@matsv201]

@@stargazer7644 Yes. but what do you call the cathode heater?

[@stargazer7644]

@@matsv201 It's called a filament.

[@matsv201]

@@stargazer7644 There is still a heating function that can be turned on and of.

[@stargazer7644]

@@matsv201 There is no heating function in a CRT. What would it be heating? The only thing that needs to warm up in a tube is the filament, and that generally takes 2-3 seconds.

[@l00per]

i have very fond memories of screensavers. As a kid (like what, 5 years old?) my dad made me a custom 3D screen saver with my name bouncing around like the DVD logo and it was very cute. Until i accidentally downloaded another screensaver that showed the earth rotating in space, displaying an hour and date that were never correct, and i was never able to change it back. Ah, good old times.

[@lukevandam7610]

I worked for a company that did other things as well but we did utilize the screen saver. There was an admin panel and you can push screen savers out to end user pcs. we used it for 2 scenarios, there are more for sure. The 2 we used it for was; 1. An un obsrusive way to convey company goings ons. After returning to my desk i'd know whos birthday was coming up or when the next town hall was because it was on my screen saver. 2; we also used it as like digital signal, The screensaver could display websites so we had big tvs that cycled through internal websites like build failures vs success or monitor probe health statuses or unit test sucess etc. Another factor to consider for why screen savers went away is greenes. Companies can reduce emissions by conserving power by disabling screensavers. Similar to the claim to fame, "we are a paperless company" it's green to not have screen savers.

[@RowiDankelsaft]

I wish there were remake of the old screensavers that ran flawlessly on the latest x64 Windows systems. Screensavers in the 95 era were just normal executables, with some additional programming that would allow you to configure them with the proper parameter. Why not running the old scr in a modern system? Its absolutely doable. The problem is that the old screensavers from that era cant work with more than one screen (for example) or have their resolution incredibly tiny, or are prepared only to work with 4:3 or 5:4 resolutions. And that's only talking about the screensavers that came with Windows 95 and Microsoft Plus!. I havent even mentioned AfterDark and how their flying toasters are still embedded in my memories.

[@quantumleaper]

My favorite Screensaver from 1998, will work fine on a modern 16x9 screen, VoodooLights is still my favorite and I can now crank up the setting to the Max and still be over 120 fps.

[@RowiDankelsaft]

@@quantumleaper Oh yes, the problem is that few are the screensavers effectively adapting to any resolution. Or worse, to multiple screens. In an era where having more than one screen is something normal, having a screensaver only displaying in the main one is a nope.

[@FerralVideo]

Another reason why they've gone by the wayside is that LCDs don't have that long warmup delay. (Though some panels do still take a hot minute to realize you've given them a signal and to wake back up.) I personally think that the biggest reason is the move towards "high energy efficiency". Therefore monitor sleep has almost completely replaced the role that screen savers used to take. This was even in motion during the CRT years, with Windows 95 supporting the ability to put your monitor in sleep, and Win98 defaulting to a fairly aggressive profile for the function. In fact in the CRT's twilight years, I read an article advising people to disable their screen savers completely, because with the CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) backlights early LCDs depended on having a finite lifespan and burnout being an actual cause of needing to replace your monitor, physically turning off the backlight was better for the life of the display than keeping everything running but displaying a pretty animation.

[@arakwar]

The one only “real” reason why LCD replaced CRT is weight. The rest are nice side effects.

[@Nitrxgen]

@@arakwar weight? maybe, size definitely... i have 3 secondhand monitors in tri-screen setup on my desk, i'd have absolutely no room for anything else if they were all CRT, the colour degradation is hardly noticeable but as a programmer i couldn't care less! i don't any visual arts on here to notice the difference between them, i turn the monitors off just to save power when i'm away which probably saves me about £10/mo

[@MrHarris73]

Funny thing is I just downloaded the 3D Pipes screensaver onto my PC a few days ago. That one was always my favorite and I was feeling nostalgic so what the hell.

[@TrangleC]

I also miss the sounds old PCs used to make. Remembering how magical it was to accompany my mother when she bought our first real PC (we had a Commodore 64 and a Amiga 600 and 1200 before), a 486 with a "Turbo" button that allowed you to switch the frequency from 8 MHz to a whopping 66 MHz. Those things were loud, but not in an obnoxious way. It is hard to explain. It sounded kind of like a vacuum cleaner 2 rooms over, if you know what I mean and it made those softly clanking plotter noises occasionally. I also fondly remember that "new PC smell" and how the beige-grey colored metal housing looked before it got dusty and bleached by the sun. Even the show room of the PC shop was a bit of a magical place and buying the thing felt much like buying a brand new car.

[@stargazer7644]

It amazes me that there are people on the planet that don’t know what a hard drive is or why they make noises.

[@TrangleC]

@@stargazer7644 Who said I don't know what a HDD is?

[@stargazer7644]

@@TrangleC You did. "It sounded kind of like a vacuum cleaner 2 rooms over, if you know what I mean and it made those softly clanking plotter noises occasionally." That's called a hard disk. It's the bearing and/or motor whine coupled with the head positioner noises.

[@TrangleC]

@@stargazer7644 And where in that quote do I say I didn't know that it was the HDD that made the sounds? Dude, you really need to check your tendency to read stuff people didn't say into their words if you are going to go around and be condescending. You're needlessly embarrassing yourself.

[@NighT-WolF85]

Having a screensaver where you can play a game is one of the most awesome and at the same time most senseless things I've ever heard.

[@AntTonyLOLKID]

My dad used to have a fish tank as a screensaver, and when you clicked, it gave the fish some food where the cursor was.

[@rparl]

One idle screen animator I used with an early Red Hat Linux had a view of a valley. But the internal clock would cause it to cycle through a series of different views as the day progressed. Dawn, several through the morning, midday, afternoon, and evening, sunset, and one for the nighttime.

[@TheHamerer]

I use a screensaver instead of troubleshooting issues with my current setup. Having the monitors go to sleep constantly makes the device disconnect and reconnect sound, and detecting a signal can take longer than the PC takes to boot up. So now I just have a screensaver on until the computer goes to sleep.

[@youarenotrede]

I remember getting that Matrix screen saver and thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

[@tic857]

That stars galaxy one was my favorite. When I got too stressed out from homework or school, id wait for that screen saver to turn on and I'd just watch it for a few minutes and mentally reset.

[@shugpro]

Burn-in is also a major issue on plasma screens

[@shayap5441]

I remember that feeling when I walked in the office one morning to see ten monitors with The Matrix console screen saver on...

[@matthewlozy1140]

Faster boot times with SSDs also helped kill the screensaver. No longer do you have to wait minutes for your computer to boot up. So instead of leaving it on and letting the screensaver take over, a good amount of people just turn their computers off completely.

[@arakwar]

Yup. My work computer is the only one I won’t turn off because there’s too much corporate stuff running on it, it takes time to boot. All personal computers are turned off when I leave the room for more than a couple of minutes unless I’m in a game or working on something. Browsing internet, youtube, or other stuff ? Just shut it down, use your browser history to get your tabs back if you need them. A 5-10sec complete boot time do wonders.

[@justdoit2521]

My laptop has a 4k OLED screen and after watching this video I discovered that the taskbar has left a permanent mark at the bottom. Feels bad man...

[@JohnSmith-cg3cv]

The information presented is actually a really cool glimpse into computing/display history. The delivery, however, I find cringy. Case in point: 1:24, 0:58. Sorry for all the cringe I just caused by people clicking those times lmao.

[@ew3612]

oh that mouse maze was deadly! I had forgotten about that guy!

[@sfadhjkl4112]

But is there an advantage to screensaver vs screen turning off for OLEDs?

[@ClayMann]

yes turning the screen off will save power and there's no warm up time for an OLED like in the old days where CRT's would actually take maybe 30 minutes to really get a cookin an a lookin.

[@imprincesswolfy2565]

@@ClayMann you said nothing my guy

[@imprincesswolfy2565]

No, there’s no real advantage other than looking cool

[@ClayMann]

@@imprincesswolfy2565 i said more than you my wolfy. Wait my wolfy sounds weird. Not touching princess. OK fine, very concise put down. You probably do well making peoples day that little bit worse on Twitter. 👍

[@AS-Phoenix.2]

There's an advantage in turning the screen off because OLEDs degrades over time.

[@1001Hobbies]

CASTAWAY JOHNNY on Windows 3.1 could be hours of amusement to watch. I kinda miss that now.

[@forcequitOS]

As a Mac user, I still use screensavers Not to save my screen, but to show some nice stuff, the time, and weather, when I’m doing something else and take a glance at my monitor

[@mrniceguy4277]

How's that specific for a Mac user?

[@YoDz-117]

@@mrniceguy4277lmfao I’m dying. Like this guy thinks Mac users are elite compared to those peasant Windows/Linux users

[@joederbyshire_]

@@YoDz-117 not one single thing he said suggested he thinks hes "elite" for being a mac user.

[@Bad-Seed]

@@joederbyshire_ probably the "As a MAC user" part since, you know, there was no need to include that... but just like vegans, Mac users also always need to let everyone know they are MAC users... "As a MAC user, i only use synthetic motor oil in my prius"

[@emmanotsostrong]

@@Bad-Seed engineers too! -an engineer

[@Zeder95]

Screensavers are super nostalgic for me. Growing up in the 2000s, computers were such an exciting new world back then, even without internet access, and playing around with all kinds of settings including screensavers was quite interesting as a kid. I remember the maze screensaver which was kind of the "original backrooms". Later in the late 2000s to early 2010s, I remember searching for screensavers on the internet and downloading a lot of screensavers, often with seasonal themes like autumn, winter, christmas, halloween, spring etc., showing nice animated villages or landscapes. They had such a cozy and nice feeling to them, and seeing screensavers nowadays always makes me nostalgic for the simpler times of my childhood in the 2000s.

[@Nielsblog]

Whenever I have to install a new computer, I always make sure to download XScreenSaver, a great collection of retro screensavers.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

FOSS Force For Your Phos Phors!

[@cameronbosch1213]

Too bad the dev still supports macOS...

[@roadmonitoroz]

I remember the old XT computer at work. It certainly had burnt into the monitor the company name as it never left the screen regardless of what you selected in the menu.

[@_aidid]

Nostalgia hits watching the screen savers, good old days

[@ricequackers]

I love the firework screensaver on my LG OLED TV, it's very relaxing to watch while you've got the show paused and waiting for someone to return from the bathroom.

[@jimflagg4009]

You can also set the security in Group Policy on Windows Server so it forces all computers to lock after an amount of time.

[@microbuilder]

I dont think I could *not* use a screen saver, its been engrained in me since the 90s.

[@balecalduin1993]

Installed Lubuntu 22.04 recently. I was mesmerized that a screensaver was standard on that thing. That took me way back. Weird that they're making a comeback. I guess OLED will bring that 90s nostalgia in a big way

[@K-o-R]

Curves and Colours, 80 lines, minimum spacing, colour changing. Looks amazing, especially with 25 all showing it at once.

[@Nakia11798]

Bring back Screensavers! I miss them a lot. Not those garbage photo rolls either. Also, I remember burn-in. It was pretty funny, but it usually went away after a little.

[@jimdennis2451]

FLYING TOASTERS FOREVER!!!

[@rebeccaclementz3756]

I miss pipes.🙁

[@microtasker]

The newspaper comic 'The Far Side' came out with a screensaver that had flying cows and crazy stuff like that. That was the best one, imo.

[@Thanatos2996]

Burn in on OLEDs is no joke. After a couple years of using my OLED Samsung phone daily, the 16:9 rectangle in the middle is noticeably and irrecuperably duller than the bits at the top and bottom. I really wouldn't want to use an OLED computer monitor considering how much more things are moving around on my phone compared to my PC when in use.

[@Roxor128]

I built a HTPC out of old hardware and ended up having to set up the screensaver because when you left it paused and went away for a few minutes, you thought it had gotten turned off or something had gone wrong when it shut off the display to the TV. The Xscreensaver pack has so many in it that we still end up seeing new ones over a year down the line.

[@rayoflight62]

I had the After Dark Aquarium in the middle '90s, on a Trinitron monitor. I recall the 100+ Watts power consumption of the monitor had little to no effects on the electricity bill at the time. Nowadays ALL the light bulbs in my house draw 100 W when turned on at the same time. The "turn off the monitor" mantras of the time we're all flack. The first LCD monitors, with CCFL back lighting from 25 years ago, are still working fine! Albeit at 1024 x 768 60 Hz (VGA) resolution...

[@dan_loup]

The flying toastes we're pretty cool

[@taleg1]

I've had several lcd screens and all of them will gain a shadow of something if it's stuck for a long time at the same space. It usually fades after a few days, but it's still annoying. So I usually do not show anything on my screen that's there all the time and instead use autohide and similar functions. After I started to do this the issue more or less vanished, but it can still happen on my tv on occasion if i pause my bluray and go to the shitter to take a dump. If someone calls before I can return to the film, it can take as little as 30 minutes before elements get stuck as shadows, but these are hard to see unless the background is bright. Brand new LCD, might be better than this for all my screens are at least 3 years old or older, which should tell you that the video over isn't 100% correct. But remember to keep a blank desktop and move windows around now and then and you won't have an issue. I discovered this because I read ebooks on my computer in window mode, often while other programs are used beside that reading window, and it was the reading border that created a shadow so permanent that it took months for it to be fully gone. But that's easy to understand as the screen was used to watch almost the same picture hours upon hours. So you should still be a bit careful. And I still use a screensaver because I do not want to see those shadow ever again.

[@iSowelu]

Ah, screensavers... back when computers were inherently fun, quirky and had a not-so-serious and novelty vibe to them (especially vintage Macs). On my first PC (1995) I had every After Dark Screensaver series available installed as well as 'Icon Hear iT!' (from MoonValley Software), which was a fun and sometimes wacky must-have add on for any early PC enthusiast. My first Mac (1997) had all of the AfterDark screensavers and games installed as well, and the OS had that unique Mac GUI style that was always so ahead of Windows, but in a more cartoonish playful way. Of course there was Microsoft Plus! and all the add ons, sound packs and so on. The customization options were endless in those days. 'Theming' was a very fun and popular chapter in both the vintage Mac and PC stories. I do miss the early internet when websites had a magazine-like layout, and operating systems and software had skeuomorphic GUIs showing real life tools, buttons and objects on screen, but in a 90's graphical aesthetic. This was refined a bit in the 2000s as graphics got better, with more life-like skeuomorphism, and this could have been refined and evolved into something tasteful and useful in present day, but no, for some reason, even though our everyday real world objects still exist, they are no longer represented on-screen. Instead, we have a sea of white, wasted space, little to no contrast or layers, hard to decipher icon glyphs, tiny navigation links/buttons, and webpages with gigantic fonts, white wasted space, heavy scrolling, templated and often incomplete designs, and of course, OS and software GUIs that lack any kind of fun, quirk, novelty or visual eye candy. Some fun stuff still exists, and there are still applications out there that don't look like variants of Explorer or Finder windows, but they are harder to come by and are often killed off as operating systems get more advanced and less backward compatible. I do hope we return to GUIs and software that incorporates design elements taken from objects and things that we use in real life as these things still exist. There has to be a happy medium and both worlds should be able to meet in the middle.

[@Nakia11798]

I miss the days when our computer was only for playing games and downloading viruses... I mean music.

[@Clavichordist]

LOL! After Dark with the wolves howling used to get my dog barking. I agree fun, quirky and innovative is exactly how things were in the 1980s thru the 90s. After that, the computer world has become dry, boring, and stuffy.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yes it's a sad fact that computers aren't cool nor fun anymore.

[@darkguardian1314]

Ended up using photo slide show linked to a folder full of 4k photos of Cyberpunk, Halo, and Ironman changing every minute.

[@gesamtkuntswreck]

You missed the opportunity to make the DVD logo hit the corner

[@ClayMann]

i used to play that game back in the day on an actual DVD player that did that but I had no idea it would become a thing that people cheered on in bars and such. I don't recall ever seeing it hit a corner dead on haha

[@AriodanteITA]

Indeed. My first "green and white" monitor was used by my grandpa for years to run the same software with the same interface before getting to me. Result: i could clearly see the "shadows" of where the most used windows and dialog boxes used to be when the monitor was on.

[@silverwatchdog]

I actually use wallpaper engine's screen saver on my PC because I have a C1. It looks really cool and it helps preserve the life of the screen.

[@Rockin_Ross]

Microsoft is missing out on not having the star field or pipes just as an option. There are still many of us in the world who used this feature regularly and would even pay to have it back.

[@freshmoor9357]

How much time was spent making those LTT Style screensavers?

[@billaveda6408]

Actually, screen savers still exist in Win 8, 10, and 11. Right click your screen display. Personalize. Lock Screen, look down the menu of Lock Screen and you'll find a link to screen saver. You can also find it in your Power settings.

[@clorophilla]

I actually have those old school screensavers installed on my Windows 10 machine. They're pretty fun to watch, my favourite is the labyrinth.

[@Nico1a5]

How

[@Lodinn]

I'm more of a team 3D pipes, but labyrinth was a close second

[@KufLMAO]

What about plasmas? I definitely notice burn in, bit instead of ‘burn-in reduction’ the cluster of settings for it is called ‘anti-image retention’ so maybe that’s to reinforce that it isn’t permanent. Basically you could turn on the pixel orbiter which I’ve never fully understood or even noticed but sounds pretty freaky, or you could enable the scrolling bar which was literally just a black screen with a white vertical white bar passing over it in a loop until you told it to stop.

[@dimitris_verlis]

My plasma panasonic vierra 50" st60 has this feature but doesn't work when using my pc:(

[@KufLMAO]

@@dimitris_verlis Weird

[@felderup]

we on linux use em as screenlockers, there's also the benefit of using them as peer based processing projects.

[@robdavis8556]

Xscreensaver for the win. Cannot imagine a Linux install without it!

[@deadendwaterfall]

I also remember being irritated immensely when people would refer to a desktop wallpaper as a screensaver. 😏

[@khx73]

OH believe me, they still do. To this day.

[@snowman22ism]

Don't forget about Plasma screens... My Tv has a setting where you can set it to display a scrolling white bar to "erase" screen retention images. Still love my Plasma TV to this day. 60" Panasonic 1080p still going strong.

[@wiegraf9009]

I have a slight amount of burn in from the F1 timing board on mine. Use the image retention remove pretty regularly after I got that

[@JeffDeWitt]

Where I worked we took care of equipment that IBM had out on lease. IBM supplied the IT equipment for the Salt Lake City Olympics. Afterward we got the plasma screens that had been used for the Olympics and I was able to buy one... for the life of the screen you could make out "Today's Specials" on the upper right side.

[@scriptureSolace-13354]

This guy has mastered the Hank Greene monologue voice

[@user-ejxomyq]

Burn in on flat screen monitors and televisions is a real thing. Happened to me because I thought burn in only happened on crts. It's best to set a screensaver or turn off the monitor.

[@jbbutcha]

Thats an automatically standby after a certain period of time, not really a screensaver as such, although it "saves" your screen...

[@driphausen8931]

this used to happen to me on my old samsung phones as well.. and that was like 5-7 years ago xd

[@RandomNJ]

I still use screensavers. Some great multi monitor ones exist too. Also permanent LCD burn in is very much a thing. Seems IPS displays burn in much easier than TN. Exercise them pixels.

[@pixels_per_inch]

@@driphausen8931 Samsung already had OLEDs on their phones back in 2010

[@pacerdawn5512]

I lol'd at the Polybius burn in. Nice one.

[@infradragon]

I use jwz's xscreensaver because it looks really good and is light on system resources

[@robdavis8556]

Which is your favourite? I love the variety.

[@infradragon]

@@robdavis8556 i have used noof many times, but am currently using intermomentary

[@granatmelone]

I have the Minecraft screensaver that Microsoft released on April fools a couple years back. It's pretty cool!

[@SocietyNeedsImprovement]

My favorite screen saver game was Lunatic Fringe which was a part of the After Dark Deluxe collection. That game was really sweet at the time.

[@007kingifrit]

and the best secret level in duke nukem 3d

[@dougp5560]

I remember that, had it on my Mac Classic.

[@z823]

Also flying toasters screen saver

[@ak_mits]

I remember how the wall textures looked so realistic when using the labyrinth screensaver. Felt like a game

[@RomanMlejnek]

I remember being a kid and wanting to play it and the disappointment when I found out it's just a screensaver.

[@Jimbob_Offical]

I have actually created my own screen saver. It’s a rick role, it goes off every 5 minutes. I also created one similar to the famous DVD screen saver but with Michael Rosen face.

[@xcoder1122]

LCDs can also experience a permanent burn-in called "image persistence"; how severe depends on the exact type of LCD, as LCD can mean many things. Only with newer TFTs is the effect not permanent, but it can take hours to days to heal. Plasma and OLED screens can still have permanent burn-in. And newer mini-LEDs can have another undesirable effect: The brightness of the individual background LEDs decreases differently over time, so more heavily used screen areas become less bright, which is noticeable if the entire screen is filled with a solid color but that becomes only visible after years of usage.