Screensavers may feel like a bit of a relic these days, but the fact is that there are more jaw-dropping ones out there today than ever before. Whether you’re looking for something retro-tinged or a dynamic screensaver that really shows off the colours on that IPS display of yours, we have something for you here.
How to Change the Windows 10 Screensaver
Before we start, you should know the basics of setting your Windows 10 screensaver. To do so, right-click your desktop, then click “Personalise -> Lock screen -> Screen saver settings” (at the bottom).In the new window you can pick your screensaver as well as change how long it takes to appear and whether it should go to the login screen on resumption.
The install methods for screensavers you download vary, but if you download a screensaver (scr) file, you can just right-click it, then click “Install” to get it. Other screensavers come as “exe” files with their own instructions.
Now that you have the know-how, here are our favourite Windows 10 screensavers.
1. Autumn Wonderland 3D
We’re suckers for a seasonal-themed screensaver, and with summer soon making way for the golden hues of Fall, what better way to embrace it than through a befitting screensaver?
Autumn Wonderland 3D is a distinctly autumnal scene has a beautiful range of colors which really pop on an IPS display. What you don’t see here is that little woodland critters sometimes walk across the screen, boosting that soothing immersive effect. There’s an elegant analog clock in the bottom left corner too, which you can disable if you like.
2. Another Matrix
The late 90s come streaming back in all their binary glory with this screensaver, inspired of course by the classic 1999 film, The Matrix. Another Matrix looks cool and codey, even if you don’t know what it all means, and you can change basic things like how quickly it pours down your screen, the font type and density.
3. Helios
One of the prettiest screensavers out there, Helios generates smooth purple bubbles, which dynamically react off each other, bouncing and spinning around on your screen. The colours are a lovely neon shade, and you can make various tweaks like changing the number of bubbles on the screen, the motion blur, and even the frame limit!
4. IMAX Hubble 3D
A tie-in to the 2010 documentary about a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, you can still get this gorgeous screensaver that pulls in photos from the Hubble website. These are some of the most breathtaking images you’ll ever see.
5. Briblo
If you’re obsessed with Lego, then you may struggle to keep your eyes and hands off this one. Briblo is not only nice to look at, as Lego blocks calmly stack on top of each other, but you can actually interact with it and create your own Lego stack – sort of like a makeshift 3D game of Tetris.
6. Electric Sheep
Trippy visualisations created by a community of talented artists. Electric Sheep is an almost endless array of whirring, beautiful images. It takes a little setup, but the executable installation file will help you through it.
7. 3D Maze
Maybe this is a case of nostalgia-trumping quality, but if you remember the old Windows screensavers, you’ll remember this classic. 3D Maze is a first-person run through a maze with weird shapes floating around. You can change the wallpapers in the settings, but we like the original.
8. NES Screen Saver
If you don’t have a library of NES ROMs that you play on your PC, this screensaver will play a whole wall of random sections of NES games for you. If you do have a ROM collection, you can link it to this screensaver and actually play random NES games from your library. (Warning: this is terrible for productivity.)
9. 3D Pipes
Another golden oldie, this 3D Pipes screensaver generates an endless array of multi-coloured 3D pipes all over your screen. When the screen fills up, the whole thing restarts (a bit like Snake). There’s still something alluring about its 16-bit colour jankiness.
10. Wikipedia
A bit more dry than others on this list, but if you seek to absorb knowledge at every moment of your waking life, then why not try this Wikipedia screensaver which picks a random Wikipedia page for you each time it turns on?
11. Apple TV Aerial View
Put those Apple zealots in their place with this screensaver, which gives you access to the same lovely aerial footage that Mac users get natively. This streams from Apple itself, so you’ll need an Internet connection for it to work.
12. Astronomy Picture of the Day
A nice alternative to the Hubble screensaver we mentioned earlier, this one pulls the Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA’s official website. Some images are mesmerising, while others are crazy cosmic charts that might, frankly, be confusing (but cool nonetheless).
13. Blue Screen of Death
Maybe more of a cruel prank than a lovely screensaver in itself, this one is still good fun to foist on someone. It plays a loop of BSOD errors and system boots, giving the viewer horrid flashbacks of all the times this actually happened to them.
Have we convinced you to try any of these, or do you have your own personal favourite screensavers that you always stick to? Let us know!
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