screensavers

While Skeleton Adventures is technically a screensaver, it could more accurately be described as a minimovie. It tells the story of Sly Slim, a mischievous skeleton, in a series of 13 scenes. A series of different endings keeps users guessing after repeated viewings, making this way more entertaining than the average screensaver. The quality of Skeleton Adventures makes it far and away the best screensaver we've ever seen.

The program's graphics are quite impressive, with high-quality 3D renderings. Users are transported into the spooky cemetery where Sly Slim lives (or should we say, "resides"), and just … Read more

Dino Glade Advanced is a dinosaur-themed screensaver that promises a variety of dinosaurs frolicking in a delightful landscape. We like dinosaurs, so we were excited. Then we tried this screensaver and our excitement turned to befuddlement.

We don't want to be mean, but Dino Glade Advanced looks like the work of someone who just learned computer animation. Both the dinosaurs' design and animation are utterly amateurish. The dinosaurs bend their heads as if to pick something up with their mouths, and their chins disappear into the ground. The insides of their mouths are empty and red, reminding us of … Read more

Any Logo Screensaver Creator is a very basic screensaver creation program. Although it works fine, some users may be frustrated by the program's lack of features.

The thing that users need to understand is that this program has a very specific purpose; it's meant to be used with a logo or other standalone image. Users cannot include multiple images or create slideshows as many other screensaver programs allow you to do, and there's no way to include sounds or music. All this program is really meant to do is create a screensaver with a single image that … Read more

Halloween Haunting Screensaver is a fun and creepy program that is sure to get you into the Halloween spirit (no pun intended). Although it is a fairly basic program, it's not bad for a seasonal screensaver.

The program really just consists of various creepy characters, including skulls, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, bats, and bloody eyeballs, flying around on a black background. Users can optionally have a large full moon displayed as well. In the program's interface, users select how fast they want the characters to move and which character they want to use; there is a Random option, but be … Read more

Golden Autumn 3D Screensaver is an attractive program that lets users view a coming autumn scene on their desktop. Although a few aspects of the graphics could be better, overall, this is a very enjoyable program.

The screensaver starts and users are transported to a parklike setting that is full of turning trees. A soft rain falls and gentle music plays. We encounter various points of interest throughout the park, such as a gurgling fountain and ducks swimming in a canal. The program made us feel relaxed and a little wistful. Our only disappointment was that the colors of the … Read more

Halo 3 Screensaver (GloryShotSS) allows users to relive their favorite Halo 3 moments over and over again on their desktop. Although we think this is a pretty cool idea, the program's interface leaves a lot to be desired.

Each time we started the screensaver from our computer's Display Properties, a screen popped up asking us to register the program and showing us how many uses we had left. We'd click Continue, then adjust the settings, and then the same box would pop up again, showing one less trial use left, even though we hadn't run the … Read more

Summer Sports screensaver is a basic screensaver featuring photos of athletes competing in the Summer Olympics. Although the program doesn't have a lot of features, it is an enjoyable screensaver.

The program consists of numerous high-quality photos of athletes from a wide variety of sports. The photographs are professional and artistic, and the screensaver utilizes them at an appropriate resolution, something that many free screensavers seem to get wrong. In the upper left corner, a live news feed from the International Olympic Committee updates users of Olympics news in French. There are no language options on this program, so … Read more

Underwater Picture Screensaver is a basic screensaver featuring photos of sea life. Although the program works, it's rather short on both features and images.

The program's photos are of fairly high quality and feature beautiful fish. Unfortunately, there are only 12 images. This isn't a totally unreasonable number, but we would have liked to see more. We were also mildly annoyed by the fact that the publisher's Web address is displayed across the top of each image. The program offers a few options for customization. Users can choose to have the date and/or time shown … Read more

Computer Screensaver is a basic screensaver that allows users to select from several designs and a handful of options. Although the program has a few potentially useful features, we didn't find much to be impressed with.

Although the publisher's description says the program includes five screensavers, it looks to us like there are only four, and that's counting the one that is nothing but a black screen with white text scrolling across it. Two of the others contain uninteresting abstract designs, while the fourth is a field of stars. The program's interface is fairly straightforward, although … Read more