The Ultimate Vista Screensaver Tweaking Guide
Microsoft released many new screensavers for Windows Vista that look great. However, for some reason they never made option screens for them. All of the new screensavers have settings that you can tweak to completely change the look and behavior. Without an options screen, the only way to do this is with editing the registry directly. This guide will help you use registry hacks to customize the Windows Vista screensavers including:
- Aurora
- Mystify
- Bubbles
- Ribbons
Using Sysinternals Strings utility, I was able to detect the registry settings listed below. Some of these settings have been known for a while since Long’s article. Others are a TweakVista.com exclusive. I have tried my best to figure out what the working values of the new registry settings I discovered with the Strings utility. If you happen to figure out a value I don’t have please let me know and I will update the list.
To use these hacks you will need to open up Registry Editor (Start Button -> key in Regedit -> hit Enter), navigate through the paths listed below and create the required DWORD or String entries. Then just set the value and test your changes.
Aurora Screensaver (aurora.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Aurora
Amplitude
Brightness
NumLayers
Speed
SpanMultiMon
Amplitude (dword) - This value seems to take decimal values between 500000000 and 2000000000. I recommend a value of 1000000000 for a cool slow motion effect.
Brightness (dword) - I’m not completely sure about this value but anything between 1000000000 and 1050000000 seems to work. I like to use 1020000000.
NumLayers (dword) - This value can take decimal values between 1 and roughly 15. Anything higher looks way to bright. I like to set this at 2.
Speed (dword) - This value takes decimal values between 1000000000 and 2100000000. I like to set this value to something toward the low end of the scale for a cool slow effect.
SpanMultiMon - Unknown. Does not seem to do anything.
Bubbles Screensaver (bubbles.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Bubbles
BMP
ShowShadows
MaterialGlass
ShowBubbles
TurbulenceForce
TurbulenceSpeed
TurbulenceNumOctaves
Radius
SphereDensity
SpanMultiMon
BMP (String?) - Unknown. This value does not seem to do anything when I provide it with a path to a bitmap.
ShowShadows (dword) - Set this value to 1 to enable, 0 to disable.
MaterialGlass (dword) - Set this value to 0 for solid, 1 for transparent.
ShowBubbles (dword) - Set this value to 0 for black background, 1 for transparent background.
TurbulenceForce (dword) - I assume this has to do with the force the bubbles hit each other but I can not notice a difference between values other than if you set it to 0 all of your bubbles are gray. If you want to experiment, start at decimal 1000000000 and go from there.
TurbulenceSpeed (dword) - Unknown.
TurbulenceNumOctaves (dword) - Set this value between 1 and 255. The higher the faster the color of the bubble will change. I like to set this to 50 for a cool effect. Set it at 255 if you want to give yourself seizers.
Radius (dword) - Set this value between decimal 1130000000 for large bubbles, 1090000000 for small bubbles.
SphereDensity (dword) - Set this value between decimal 2100000000 for a lot of bubbles on screen, 1000000000 for few.
SpanMultiMon (dword) - Unknown.
For a cool effect that will make you sick to your stomach, set the radius to 1090000000, MaterialGlass to 0, and TurbulenceNumOctaves to 255. After about 5 minutes when you screen is entirely covered in these psychedelic bubbles you will experience some I like to call seizer maker.
Mystify Screensaver (mystify.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Mystify
BMP
CameraFOV
LineWidth
NumLines
SpanMultiMon
BMP - Unknown.
CameraFOV - Unknown but sounds cool.
LineWidth (dword) - Set this between decimal 1000000000 for thin and 1080000000 for thick. I like to set it to 1050000000.
NumLines (dword) - Set this between 1 and 100. I like to set mine at 10 for a cool saver.
SpanMultiMon - Unknown.
Ribbons Screensaver (ribbons.scr)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Ribbons
CameraFOV
RibbonWidth
NumRibbons
Blur
SpanMultiMon
CameraFOV - Unknown.
RibbonWidth (dword) - Set this between decimal 1000000000 for thin and 1080000000 for thick. I like to use 1000000000 for this setting.
Numribbons (dword) - Set this between 1 and 100. I like to set it at 50 for an entertaining effect.
Blur (dword) - Set this to 0 to disable the ribbon fade away. They will just keep drawing on each other. Set to 1 to fade.
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Tags: aurora screensaver, faster, microsoft screensavers, registry, registry editor, registry hacks, screensaver, Screensavers, tweaking, TweakVI, tweakvista, Windows, windows screensavers, windows vista
Trebawa on 12 May 2007 at 2:41 pm #
SpanMultiMon sounds like it allows the screensaver to span multiple monitors, but don’t quote me on that. It’s probably a Boolean value.
bob on 10 Jun 2007 at 12:20 am #
on the auroa screensaver, i think that SpanMultiMon is the option to span multiple monitors. i do not have multiple monitors, but this seems logical
StumbleUpon » Your page is now on StumbleUpon! on 20 Jul 2007 at 9:51 pm #
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
Vista Screen Savers ported to Windows XP. - Software - Windows XP - Dell Community Forum on 07 Aug 2007 at 5:55 pm #
[...] the registry to get some of them set-up properly. Here is how to set them up in the registry. Here: http://www.pctipsbox.com/the-ultimate-vista-screensaver-tweaking-guide/Â Mystify will run on its own but the other three need parameters set in the registry. Note: These [...]
StumbleUpon » hitsland's web site reviews and blog on 08 Sep 2007 at 6:47 am #
[...] The Ultimate Vista Screensaver Tweaking Guide [...]
Rick on 09 Nov 2007 at 9:01 pm #
Hi, i made the modifications, however the bubbles background never goes transparent. it’s always black no matter what value i put in. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.
Mark Prigoff on 21 Sep 2008 at 8:13 pm #
Just a few observations… I have explored these four screensavers on a multi-monitor VISTA box setup, and some versions which also work on XP boxes.
Perhaps these registry comments might help:
NumRibbons [DWORD] : integer value which controls the number of ribbons generated before fading.
RibbonWidth [DWORD] : integer value which controls the width of the ribbons.
CameraFOV [DWORD] : integer value which controls the “field of view” of the array of ribbons.
SpanMultiMon [DWORD] 0/1 : Enable/Disable spanning across multiple monitors (one set of configuration data). (You would have to have a multi-monitor graphics card and set the secondary monitor to be an expansion of the primary desktop and not a duplicate of the primary desktop. With that set, then the ribbons span across two or more monitors depending upon how many monitors your graphics card or dongle can handle. I’ve seen this screensaver work on a 4-monitor card, spanning three monitors and it’s very cool!)
Blur [DWORD] 0/1 : Enable/Disable blurring (read: fading) of old ribbons.
AllScreenSame [DWORD] 0/1 : Enable/Disable matching of ribbon displays on all monitors (on a multi-monitor display array).
I haven’t had the chance to play with these values yet, but I will try them out soon. However, I did setup a direct shortcut to these screensavers on my desktop, and then enabled hot keys: CTRL + ALT + R for “Ribbons”, CTRL + ALT + B for “Bubbles”, etc. In this way, I can activate these screensavers (without having to set them up in the desktop display properties) with just a few strokes on the keyboard, and so that mouse movement won’t deactivate them. This is a good technique for quickly hiding your desktop, without having to set a low value in the normal screensaver timer. You can “hide on the fly” whenever you choose.
SHADOW6 on 28 Sep 2008 at 9:07 pm #
i wana be able to pop the bubbles by moving the cursor.ive seen this done and i believe space was exit.