Screensavers used to serve a practical purpose.

Back when monitor technology was less sophisticated, their selling point was the ability to prevent the dreaded screen burn, where if a PC sat for long enough with a particular menu (or any bit of screen furniture) displayed, a ghostly image of the same would eventually become permanently burned into the monitor.

Nowadays, screensavers serve more as a bit of fun or as a way to protect a PC when the owner is briefly away, by kicking in automatically and asking for a password before they’ll return to Windows proper. Windows XP can use photos and videos stored on the PC to create a screensaver, but Windows Vista takes it several steps further.

This workshop shows how to personalise a screensaver in Vista.