Reader Beverly e-mailed to ask us a question about creating a custom screensaver:
“I received an email with some lovely animal pictures and I would like to make a file of these and use that file as a screensaver.
“I’m not very computer literate so when I asked Microsoft and Dell, neither one knew what I was talking about.”
Well Beverly, I’d like to know who you spoke with at Microsoft and Dell, because your question is legitimate and a solution exists. Here is what you should do:
Step 1: Collect the Photos
Collect all the photos you wish to use in your screensaver, and save them together within the same folder. I created a new folder inside My Pictures in which to save the screensaver photos.
Step 2: Set up the Screensaver
Right-click on your desktop wallpaper to bring up the context menu. When the context menu appears, click on Properties. This will open up Windows’ Display Properties, shown below.
Fig. 1 - Display Properties window
Locate the drop-down box under the words “Screen Saver”, and select My Pictures Slideshow. Next, click on the Settings button. This will bring up the My Pictures Screen Saver Options window shown below in figure 2.
Fig. 2 - My Pictures Screen Saver Options
Locate the section that says “Use pictures in this folder”, and click the Browse button. A list of all the folders on your computer will appear. Use this list to locate and click on the folder in which you saved all your screen saver pictures. Here is an illustration of the new folder I described earlier being selected:
Fig. 3 - Selecting the folder containing photos for use in your screen saver.
Click “OK”. You will be returned to the My Pictures Screen Saver Options window.
Click “OK”. You will be returned to the Display Properties window.
Click “Preview” to see your new screen saver. If you are satisfied, click “OK” to finish.
Should you wish to add more photos to your custom screen saver in the future, simply save more photos to the folder you created in the very beginning of this tutorial. The photos will automatically appear in your screen saver — no configuration changes are necessary.
