How to create a screen saver

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Author: Sarah Pearce

How to create a screen saver

The history of screen savers is pretty funny. They haven't always been the purely decorative programs that they are now. As a matter of fact, As recently as the early 90s, screensavers had an important function. You see, back then monitors used to burn out much more easily than they do nowadays. If you had the same image on your computer screen hour after hour, it would eventually become burned into it. Screen saver programs were a way to make sure that your computer monitor would automatically turn off before it was too late.

Nowadays, most computer experts agree that you don't need to have a screen saver running on a computer, but most people still choose to. After all, it provides a nice distraction. What few people realize, however, is that you can now create screen saver yourself without much effort. Creating a screen saver, as a matter of fact, is very easy if you get the right tools. It all depends on how complex of a program you want to create. For example, if you want to create screen savers that show a selection of photos, You can download a program for free that will do it all for you. All you have to do is select the photos and let it run!

Of course, you can create screen saver programs that are much more complicated. The other day, I downloaded a create flash screensaver program, and I have been playing with it ever since. It is actually easier to use than I had thought. Basically, the create screen saver program is no more difficult to use than, say, your typical flash animation program. Once you learn the basics of flash, it is no trouble at all to set it up to automatically run on your computer once your system has been idle for a certain period of time - say five minutes. Even if you don't know anything about programming, you can  learn how to make a few basic animations and run them on your systems.

Of course, if you have never done it before, you should go basic. To start off with, you should make a slideshow screensaver. Not only will that provide you with an interesting diversion, but it will also show you how easy it can be. After that, you can get a more advanced create screen saver program. Some of them allow you to pick from some premade animations, so that you don't have to design your own. After that, you can move on to flash if you are still interested.