Can one turn a .exe file into a screen saver?

Factual Questions
1

I am wondering if its possible to have my computer use some particular .exe file as its screen saver.

-FrL-

2

You should be able to just rename it to .scr and shove it in WINDIR\system32. Note that it probably won’t work with the preview button, and may behave strangely if it gets passed some of the command line arguments for screensavers that it doesn’t understand.

3

… dunno, but I assume you already thought about using the Print Screen key and making one or more graphic images that can be incorporated into a screensaver?

4

The program in question runs a 3d animation. A series of screenshots wouldn’t do the trick.

-FrL-

5

Am I missing something? What does this have to do with turning an executable into a screensaver?
FYI a screensaver is an executable, with a .scr extension instead of .exe

6

Thanks for the help.

I copied the executable over to system32 and changed the “.exe” to “.scr” but

-It doesn’t show up in the list of screen savers, and
-When I try to run it by clicking on it in system32, it makes the screen go blank for a second (so it’s trying to run at least but then immediately returns to the desktop.

The first time I tried it, it said it couldn’t run because of a missing file. That file is in the folder with the original .exe, so I copied it (and every other file in that folder) over to system32. It no longer gives me that error message, but it still doesn’t run correctly, as described above.

Maybe some programs just won’t work for this purpose for some reason? (Or maybe in this case it’s a conflict regarding command line parameters or something. I haven’t read the page linked above very closely yet.)

-FrL-

(If you’re curious, or if it helps, the program is the “cascades” demo from Nvidia.)

7

I have cascades. I’ll try it when I get home.

8

A lot of people (incorrectly) use “screensaver” to mean “wallpaper” or “desktop background”.

9

I doubt you will succeed. A screensaver IS an executable, but it conforms to special rules - it is full screen, it cancels (or falls to a secure login dialog) on some specific condition (usually mouse movement or keystroke), and responds to specific command line parameters for configuration.

There may be a generic wrapper screensaver - it would behave like a screensaver but launch a fullscreen app, then hook the mouse/keyboard to cancel the app to cancel it. Possible, but I don’t recall seeing anything like it.

Si

10

I don’t know of a way to do it reliably through the normal Windows interface, but there’s a freeware app called ScreenRun that does this. Once you download and install it, set your screensaver to the included “scrnrun” file, and use the program settings to select the .exe you want.