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Who Needs Screensavers?
| Who Needs Screensavers? Computers normally come with a screen saver already set up, and there's a wide variety of novel screen savers you can get, to gaze at when you're stuck for ideas. But what's the point? Screen savers have a down side; they're quite good at causing problems, and are often the cause of unexplained lockups which result in having to start the computer again. You may have noticed that we don't use screen savers at the SeniorNet Learning centre, for that very reason. The main reason for using a screen saver is to prevent what's called 'burn in' of the monitor screen. 'Burn in' can happen if a monitor is left on for a long time, displaying an unchanging image. Because the picture is produced by electrons bombarding a coating on the inside of the screen, constant display on a fixed image can result in the image being sort-of lightly 'tattooed' on the inside of the screen, and showing there faintly when the original image has gone away. Screen savers help avoid 'burn in' by displaying a constantly changing picture on the screen, so there's no fixed image to be burned in. However, modern monitors are pretty resistant to 'burn in' so it's not a major problem today. In any case, there's a much better solution, called the on/off switch. If I want to leave my computer running (because I don't want the hassle of turning off and restarting later), I simply push the on/off button on my monitor. Later, it takes only a few moments to get the monitor going again and, in the meantime, I've saved some useful electric power. In case you don't know how to turn off the screen saver, its as simple as this:- Place the mouse pointer at some blank area of the desktop screen, and click the right mouse button. (This is a bit quicker than using Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Enter) In the sub menu which appears, click on 'Properties' Click the 'Screen Saver' tab in the multiple dialogue box which opens Just below the left hand side of the picture of a computer which appears, notice a slot with the heading 'screen saver' above it. Click the 'reveal arrow' at the right hand end of the slot, and you will see a list of various screen savers you can choose from. Reject the lot, by clicking on the entry that says 'none'. Click OK and you're done. Whenever you're going to be away from your computer for more than, say, five minutes at a time, consider turning the monitor off to save power, (and wear and tear on the screen). John Selby. First Printed in April 2001 SNN Newsletter |
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