Ever wondered why you couldn’t preview and/or play screensaver files like any other media file? This, in fact, is exactly what the free Screensaver Player allows you to do. This little app allows you to manage screensavers and to them within small sub-windows on your screen.
It can even create playlists of favorite screensavers and shuffle through them at set time intervals.
If you download a lot of screensavers and would like a way to manage them (or) if you are occasionally curious about screensavers and like to download and preview them without the hassle of installing them in the system folder (and using the Windows screensaver dialog), then this app is for you.
Here’s the program in action:
Some notes:
- Playlists: will let you create and save playlists of screensavers on your machine, regardless of their location on your hard drive.
- Shuffle & View: will also let you view screensavers serially within a sub-window (whose resolution you can define via a dropdown). You can also define the number of seconds or minutes to view each screensaver before moving on to the next one. Strangely, the developer did not include an option for fullscreen serial viewing.
- Manage: you can configure screensavers, run them, or install them into the system folder via the Screensaver Player interface. The option to delete them was overlooked, though.
The verdict: a nice program overall, and I like to feature original and/or unusual software in my blog. I don’t see everyone clamoring to download this one. But I will confess that I am often briefly curious about screensavers but refrain from checking them out because of the hassle of installing and viewing them in Windows; so that may change now that I have this program.
Version Tested: 3.0
Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 3.3 megs).
