Screensaver -- MovieScreensaver (version 0.1)

MovieScreensaver Screen Shot (click on the image to enlarge)

If you would like to use your favorite music videos as a screensaver, “MovieScreensaver” is what you need. Although it doesn’t have many options, it really doesn’t need many to function. It does require you to have “Windows Media Player” installed. This should not be a problem because “Windows Media Player” usually comes with most versions of Windows.

The program requires no installation (meaning you don’t double click on an *.exe file to install it). You just unzip the file and copy the files to the locations provided in the directions. If you don’t have a C:\windows folder as it describes in the directions, you can perform a search for *.scr and find the folder where your other screensavers are located. Then just copy the files there.

After you save the files to the correct place, you open the screensaver through the control panel “Display” option, “Screensaver” tab. To open it, you scroll down the list of screensavers until you find “MovieScreensaver”. After you click on it, click on “Settings” to open the program to display what is shown in the screenshot.

Unfortunately, you can’t add a folder and have it play all the video files in a folder. It works by clicking on “Add” and you save the location of each of your video files individually. The option called “Save position” is pretty nice. Enabling this option will result in the screensaver remembering which file was playing when you interrupt it (move the mouse or press any key). The next time the screensaver starts, it will continue with that same movie at the position it left off the last time.

The documentation states that it works on Windows 95/98 and XP but on some Windows 2000 and NT systems it doesn't seem to work. I have few problems with it working on Windows XP. I have found that the video occasionally locks up when it first starts to play but the sound continues to play. I don't consider this to be a significant problem because you can move your mouse and the screensaver goes away and everything is OK.

The download consists of a compressed file, moviescreensaver.zip. Unzipping the file produces three files, readme.txt MSVBVM50.DLL and MovieScreensaver.scr

MovieScreensaver Home Page

Download MovieScreensaver