# Make a screensaver?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 28, 2001, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345 "2001-09-28T17:29:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/1 "2001-09-28T17:29:22Z")

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Does anyone know if there is a general method to making screensavers? I’ve seen some software packages that will turn flash movies into screensavers and such, but is it really that difficult?

What exactly _is_ an .scr file that I can get it to work with different media-- or can I?

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/2 "2001-09-28T20:22:06Z")

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I think I read somewhere that a .scr is just an .exe with a different extension (although of course it has to have some sort of configuration thingy, which makes it a bit different)

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**Author:** ![Oncle\_Biere\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oncle\_Biere\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oncle_Biere_1)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/3 "2001-09-28T21:34:57Z")

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You can change any file into a screen saver just by renaming it .scr

I have often made dos batch files into screen savers, and even .bmp files.

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**Author:** ![Oncle\_Biere\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oncle\_Biere\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oncle_Biere_1)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/4 "2001-09-28T21:37:35Z")

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Oops. I just checked, and the bmp files were done by renaming a .com file that just displays whatever .bmp is in its parameter list. But again, it’s very simple.

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**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2001, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/5 "2001-09-28T21:39:39Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Oncle Bière \*  
> \*\*Oops. I just checked, and the bmp files were done by renaming a .com file that just displays whatever .bmp is in its parameter list. But again, it’s very simple. \*\*

How would you make a .com display an image? Are .com’s programmed in C++ or a windows language?

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**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/make-a-screensaver/84345/6 "2001-09-29T01:38:16Z")

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Well, it doesn’t work for Flash, at least. I tried it both with an .swf file (which did absolutely nothing) and the executable that one may expot flash files as (which gave me, mysteriously, a URL error for no reason at all).