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Question

How do I rebuild a great screensaver?

May 7, 2015 12:46PM PDT

I have a terrific screensaver I used to love using in W98. It worked briefly in XP, but subsequent updates put the kibosh on that. It's a very simple SS, and I would love to be able to get it to work in W7. Here's a video of it - the only thing moving is the wheeling seagull. The music is not attached to the SS, it just happened to be playing in the background. If someone could help me to get this to work, I'd be forever grateful. I have the original file in Zip format.

http://youtu.be/gGfj9OsgqAA

Discussion is locked

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Answer
not enough to go on
May 7, 2015 12:56PM PDT

but if you could get documentation telling you what dll files it used or vbrun or other types of files in windows 98, you might be able to extract those system files, add to the screen saver folder and have it run OK. You may be able to find and download just the necessary vbrun files for it if you google for them. May need some comctl* type files too.

Even if they are no longer in current windows, often they will run the program if they are added into the program's folder, even if before they were in windows "system" folder. A lot of those older programs looked first in their own folder for a file, then to the system's default system folder second.

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Sorry! I wasn't sure what to include
May 7, 2015 1:19PM PDT

I have the associated files - one is a .apj file and the other is a .scr file. I'm not sure how to determine what dll files it used. Here are the instructions included in the zip file. And obviously, the URLs are defunct, so no help there. Thanks again for your input!

ZEN-TIME SCREENSAVER July 1999 (c) Zone 5 Imaging Freeware

http://www.upline.co.uk/Zone5

Any enquiry with regards to the commercial use of this product should be sent to the webmaster@digital-imaging.net



ZONE 5 IMAGING


Free Screen Savers from Zone 5 Imaging

Screen Saver Frequently Asked Questions & Instructions

Version 3 06/07/99

We test all of our screen savers before offering them for download on various Windows 95 and 98 PC's and laptops we also have 20 beta testers who also test them out. If you are having problems please read the FAQ

Although we state clearly on our home page that due to the freeware nature of these products we do not offer any support, we occasionally get emails requesting assistance. We want you to enjoy our offerings so we have compiled a list of the common questions we get asked with the answers.

Instructions:

1. Click on the screen saver you require and when your browser prompts you for instructions "save it to disk".

2. When the file has downloaded open it in Winzip and extract the files into the Windows directory.

3. Open the settings/control panel option from the Windows 95 tool bar and select display.

4. Select the screen saver option and choose the name of the saver that you downloaded.

5. Click on OK



Q "I cannot download the screen saver from www.upline.co.uk/Zone5/index.htm an error message says server not available or timed out".

A Our servers have experienced minimum downtime in 1998, about 4 hours (fingers crossed for the future) but that does not mean that it is always easy to connect to. Many things can go wrong with the internet, excessive traffic can cause time outs and disruption to the actual world network can mean servers are inaccessible for periods of time. If this happens try connecting at another time.

Q " I downloaded a screen saver which has 2 files with the following extensions .apj and .scr and I can't get it to run correctly or I cannot see it in the Settings/Screen saver drop down box".

A Make sure that you unzip both files to the Windows directory the screen saver requires that both files are placed there. It needs both files to run.

Q "I cannot see all of the screen saver it is to big for my screen".

A Our screen savers are created for 800x600 configurations and will not look correct on 640x480 screens. If you have a larger resolution screen like 1024x768 or 1280x1024 they will still run but will be smaller and centered with a black border, the animation's will also spill onto this border but they still run normally.

Q "The screen saver colours are all wrong".

A Our screen savers are designed to be run in true colour mode 24bit.

Q "The animation's run slowly and are a bit jerky or the animation's are to quick"

A Not so easy this one. We design and test our screen savers on several PC's and operating systems before releasing them.

a. 486 25Mhz running Win 3.11 and Win 95 with 8Mb of RAM and cheap graphics card.

b. Pentium 100Mhz running Win 95 and Win 98 32 Mb RAM and stealth graphics card.

c. Pentium 2 Running Win 95 and Win 98 128Mb of RAM and Stealth graphics card.

It is very difficult to get a saver to run on all of these platforms the same so we try to aim for the middle of the road PC (b).

Q "I get funny error messages when the screen saver runs"

A Make sure that your Windows configuration is set up correctly. You should not experience any system problems with these products if you follow the setup instructions.

Q "I have followed this FAQ and I still cannot get the saver to run"

A Our screen savers run on Windows machines only not on Mac, OS2 or Unix. We have had some very odd emails in the past that we have not been able to fully answer but they do appear to be problems associated with OS setups.
Please make sure that if you are using any of the Windows products that you have run the appropriate service pack updates and that you have valid upto date virus checking software installed. Our savers are checked for virus's but we have heard of instances of our savers being passed around on floppy disks which have had virus's on them
....SO WATCH OUT FOR THIS.

If you are getting despondent either try the saver out on another PC or download a different one and try that.

Q "When do you have new screen savers on-line?"

A About every 3 months we have a couple of new ones available, It's the ideas not the technology that's the problem and our day jobs Sad You can join the mailing list here to automatically get updated when new ones come on-line.

We hope that answers any questions that you have

Hope to See you back at Zone 5 soon and don't forget let us have your feed back.

Back




Note: This post was edited by a forum moderator to remove unnecessary links on 05/08/2015 at 9:49 AM PT

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Answer
did you try the simplest approach?
May 7, 2015 1:12PM PDT

Right clk on the install file, choose to run in compatibility mode?

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I tried
May 7, 2015 1:39PM PDT

...to install multiple ways, but it wouldn't work. Kept telling me "errors occurred while installing, program will terminate." Also, it doesn't give me a compatibility mode option anywhere.

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I don't have that one, so....
May 7, 2015 4:20PM PDT

...tried another old favorite one like it, just to see if I could run it in Linux, using WINE. WINE is an windows emulation program. I

http://wiki.winehq.org/ScreenSavers

Winter Town Screensaver
https://www.google.com/search?q=wintertown+screen+saver&gws_rd=ssl#q=winter+town+screensaver&spell=1

Hah, it worked just fine. So, how can that help you? Well, maybe the files that will run your screen saver can be copied from the wine folders into your matching windows folders (careful to not overwrite any files already there) and then your screen saver will work in the newer windows too.

Here's the files I currently have in "system32" folder but I also have more files than comes with WINE due to other windows programs I installed. In the system folder there's only these three files.

ddeml.dll mmsystem.dll wavmix16.dll

http://glenburniemd.net/CNET/winefiles.txt

When it's finished uploading you can see it playing on linux at this link.
http://glenburniemd.net/CNET/utube-WinterTown.html

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Thanks!
May 7, 2015 10:02PM PDT

I'll review this info today and let you know what happens.

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Is there an scr file?
May 7, 2015 5:30PM PDT

If so, drop it into windows and try to run it. The scr files are like stand alone executable files with all the other stuff needed wrapped up in them.

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scr files
May 7, 2015 5:36PM PDT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screensaver

a note about windows 95 screensavers too.



A Windows screensaver is a regular Portable Executable (PE) with the .scr file extension. In addition, this program should support the following command line parameters:[3]

With no parameter - shows the Settings dialog box or do nothing.

ScreenSaver.scr /s

Runs the screensaver.

ScreenSaver.scr /p or /l <HWND>

Previews the screensaver as child of window. <HWND> (presented as unsigned decimal number) is an identifier (handle) of the window in which to appear preview.

ScreenSaver.scr /c

Shows the Settings dialog box, modal to the foreground window.

ScreenSaver.scr /a <HWND>

Changes password, modal to window <HWND>. Windows 95 screensavers must handle it.


more at the link.
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Answer
Cheat.
May 7, 2015 1:14PM PDT

Go get VirtualBox, install a quick and dirty Windows 98 in the VM, then this screensaver. Run it full screen when you feel the need.
Bob

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Answer
These days
May 7, 2015 1:24PM PDT

why have a screensaver?
Do you look at the screen when your not using the computer?
Mine just goes black, like it's turned off
Digger

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Calming
May 7, 2015 1:27PM PDT

It's great to watch when I meditate.

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LOL
May 7, 2015 1:33PM PDT

never mind