What,You,Should,Know,About,Ins computer What You Should Know About Installing Screensavers

Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc ----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a

Do you remember that frustrating feeling when you find aninteresting screensaver and can't install it on yourcomputer? This article will help you to never have it again.Back to when Windows 95 started to find its home on manycomputers there was just half a dozen of screensaverspreinstalled with the system. All you could do was selectingone of these. It was as simple as boring.Luckily those times are left behind. Now we have hundreds ofscreensavers developed throughout the years and availablefor download. Finding a nice screensaver matching your tasteand style can be a hard task. How much disappointing is itwhen you are unable to install the discovery on yourcomputer then? I bet you know.Often you come across a screensaver with an intriguingdescription and no screenshots. You are curios to see it inaction. But: SLAP! You can't figure out the way to make itwork on your system and you will never know what you havemissed. What a pity! I know.Well... Enough! Enough of this! There should be a way tomake us, screensaver hunters, luckier. Keep reading. There'ssomething that can open a whole new world of screensavers toyou.First, in order to fight this evil, we should find itsroots. Why is it so that we have the problem? Mainly it'sbecause there are several ways to distribute screensavers: a) As self-extracting installation packages b) As ZIPped installation packages c) As individual .SCR filesThe self-extracting packages are the easiest to install. Youjust download the screensaver and double click it. Then theinstallation program starts and performs all the stepsnecessary to install the screensaver. That is, you have itready for use just with a few mouse clicks.You can recognize the ZIPped installation packages by theirnames. They have ".zip" at the end. Double clicking suchfiles will probably get you nowhere unless you are wellprepared.The third category is represented by files with names endingwith ".scr". Activating such file usually launches thescreensaver. That's not bad. At least you can see what it'sall about. But this way it won't appear in the list ofavailable screensavers that the operating system starts ifyour computer goes to rest. That is, you have to use alittle trick if you like thescreensaver.Now that the reason of our problems is a bit more obvious, Ialmost hear your question. Once the self-extracting packagesare the easiest to install, why just not to stick with them?Okay, you are right. It makes a perfect sense. But youforget one important thing. Screensavers are created byprogrammers.And programmers differ from other computer users in thatthey see everything from their very specific and technicalpoint of view. It's not a problem for them to extract filesfrom ZIPped packages as they work with them very often. Itis rather natural for them to copy files into secret systemfolders that 80% of users didn't hear about and don't haveto.That's why they create screensavers and put them on downloadsites in the form that is hard to install for you. But don'thurry to blame them. They mostly do it unintentionally, notbecause they hate people who can't handle ZIP archives orbare screensaver files.I know it because I am one of them. In fact (my face goesred here) my Rainy Screensaver (http://www.elasticsystems.com/rainy/ ) was distributed as aZIPped package until version 1.7. Thanks to the people whoprovided me with their feedback. I really don't see anyreason to hurt those who use their computers as tools orsource of entertainment. These people don't have to know alltechnical aspects.I hope more and more screensaver writers will understandthis and will make their screensavers easier for you toinstall. Meanwhile you yourself can get the knowledge neededto handle not so friendly installations without a problem.So let's get back to installing ZIPped packages and barescreensaver files.* ZIPped installation packagesThese ".zip" files are known as archives. It is very popularway to spread software and information over the net. Theylet you to "pack" many files into one that is much easier todownload. They also use special methods known as compressionto reduce the final size of the packed files and thus saveyour time and money spent downloading them.In order to unpack (extract) files from a ZIPped package youshould use a special program. Probably the most popular andeasy to use is WinZip. You can download it fromhttp://www.winzip.com. Windows XP has a built-in support for".zip" files so, if you use Windows XP, there's no need foradditional software.The most important thing to keep in mind is that a ".zip"package usually contains a collection of files that shouldbe extracted somewhere before you can use them. It doesn'tmatter what program you use to extract the files. Justfollow its instructions to do it and put extracted files inthe place of your choice. It's better to create a specialfolder for such cases. Alternatively you can use temporaryfolder provided by Windows.Once the files are extracted you should examine them. If yousee one named "Install.exe" or "Setup.exe" among them thenyou can double click it to complete the installationprocess. Even though archives are very convenient when usedon a bunch of files, they can be used to pack a single fileto reduce its size. So if you have extracted a single filewith its name ending with ".scr" then you should keepreading.* Bare screensaver filesAs I have said before, these files have their name endingwith ".scr". They are screensavers themselves. That is, theyare the programs that create all these amazing effects whenstarted. You can find some details about them in my article"Windows Screensavers Explained" athttp://www.elasticsystems.com/articles.html .The easiest known way to install ".scr" files is to rightclick on them and then choose "Install" from available menuoptions. Once you do this, Windows will set the screensaveras default and open Display Properties dialog where you canadjust screensaver's settings if you wish.This way has some disadvantages though. First, you should becareful with where you keep the screensaver file. If youhave put it in the temporary folder and it is likely to bedeleted or moved somewhere else later, then the system won'tfind the screensaver anymore. So you'd better create aspecial folder for screensavers that you choose to installthis way. Second, if you select another screensaver from thelist in Display Properties dialog then Windows will forgetany screensaver installed using the described method. Thatis, you will have to right click it and choose "Install"once and again.Nevertheless, this way is very convenient if you just wantto take a look at the screensaver, play with its settingsand delete it. If you really like the screensaver and wantit to brighten boring cloudy days then you'd better find acozier place to keep it.How do you find such place? It's easy. What you need is todrag the screensaver into your Windows folder. If you useWindows 95/98 or Windows Me then chances are this folder ison your drive C: and has a name of "Windows". If you useWindows NT/2000 or Windows XP then it's probably on yourdrive C: and is called "WINNT". Once you put the screensaverin this folder it will be available in the list of installedscreensavers in Display Properties dialog. Now you canselect it whenever you wish. Furthermore, you should worryno more about reinstalling it every time you change yourmind and select another screensaver.TIP: Sometimes you download a ZIPped installation packagefor screensaver, extract its contents to some folder andfind there both "Setup.exe" (or "Install.exe") and ".scr"files. In this case double clicking "Install" or "Setup" isthe preferred way. That's because the installation programwill perform all the steps needed to install the screensaverlike copying necessary files, updating system registry,providing uninstaller and so on. Simply copying the ".scr"file to Windows folder apparently won't do it.Now that you have a few more useful tricks under your belt,you can install much more screensavers. Add here acquiredconfidence that those screensavers you like are ready toplease you whenever you wish and there's a good reason tobecome a bit happier. Article Tags: Display Properties Dialog, Installation Packages, Zipped Installation, Display Properties, Properties Dialog