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screen saver
Last modified: Sunday, September 01, 1996
A small program that takes over the display screen if there are no keystrokes or mouse movements for a specified duration. Screen savers were originally developed to prevent ghosting, the permanent etching of a pattern on a display screen. For older monochromemonitors, ghosting often occurred if the same pattern was displayed on a display screen for a long period of time. Screen savers would prevent this by either blanking out the screen entirely or by displaying a constantly moving image.
Modern display screens do not suffer so much from this problem. Today, therefore, screen savers are mostly an adornment, a way to liven up the computer. Many screen savers provide another benefit, hiding a user's work from would-be snoopers. These screen savers fill the display with an image or animation until the user enters a password.
Screen saver development This is Silkmoth On-Line, a site that provides information on professional screen saver development and animated GIF creation services and many free downloads.
Screen saver heaven This site hosts a collection of over 500 downloadable screen savers for Windows platforms.
