Bill's Northwest Screensavers

Screensaver FAQ
General Help on Bill's Northwest Screensavers

Topics:

A. HOW TO DE-INSTALL ONE OF THESE SCREENSAVERS.
B. SCREENSAVER CAUSES PROBLEMS WITH LARGE DOWNLOADS.
HOW TO STOP SCREENSAVER FROM RUNNING WITHOUT DE-INSTALLING IT.
C. HOW TO CHANGE WHICH SCREENSAVER RUNS.
D. DO SCREENSAVERS RUN ALL THE TIME?
E. HOW TO MANUALLY START A SCREENSAVER.
F. HOW TO CHANGE THE NUMBER OF MINUTES OF INACTIVITY BEFORE A SCREENSAVER STARTS.
G. THE PICTURES LOOK FUNNY ON MY MONITOR.
H. HOW TO CHANGE HOW LONG/QUICK EACH PICTURE IS SHOWN.
I. MY SCREENSAVER DOESN'T COVER MY ENTIRE SCREEN OR IS DISTORTED.
J. HOW TO TURN OFF THE MUSIC/AUDIO.
K. IS THERE A SHORT CUT FOR STARTING THE DISPLAY PROPERTIES WINDOW?

A. HOW TO DE-INSTALL ONE OF THESE SCREENSAVERS.
It is very easy to remove any of the screensavers installed with one of Bill's CDs.
Just do the following:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select Add OR REMOVE PROGRAMS.
3. Choose screensaver to be removed.
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B. SCREENSAVER CAUSES PROBLEMS WITH LARGE DOWNLOADS.
HOW TO STOP SCREENSAVER FROM RUNNING WITHOUT DE-INSTALLING IT.
A large download usually means that you will not be doing anything during
the download. This means that you won't be using your keyboard. Depending
on your settings, your PC/laptop windows operating system will automatically
start your screensaver after "x" minutes of no activity. These screensavers,
and many other commercial screensavers take a large amount of CPU cycles when
they are running. Normally, this causes no problems, since you aren't doing
anything - which is why the screensaver started in the first place. But, if
you will be doing a large download, then you probably should do the following:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Change your screen saver to NONE (usually found at top of list).
(Use the drop down button in the Screen saver box).
5. Click OK to apply and exit.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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C. HOW TO CHANGE WHICH SCREENSAVER RUNS.
Most of us have more then one screensaver installed on our PC/laptop. It is
very easy to change the "active" screensaver.
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Select another screensaver from the list.
(Use the drop down button in the Screen saver box).
5. Click OK to apply and exit.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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D. DO SCREENSAVERS RUN ALL THE TIME?
No. Your screensaver only runs under either of two conditions. Either you
manually started the screensaver, or your windows operating system started
the screensaver for you. The screensaver will then run until either you
move your mouse or enter a key (I like to use the CTRL key), or your power
settings shuts everything down. Your screensaver does not continually run
in the background. Your windows operating system (Windows 95, Windows 98,
Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.) monitors your activity
and starts the screensaver program running after "x" minutes of inactivity from
you or when you manually start the screensaver.
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E. HOW TO MANUALLY START A SCREENSAVER.
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Select the PREVIEW button (or change the WAIT time to 1 minute and wait).
If you use mouse, be careful not to move mouse afterward or screensaver
will stop right away. (Besides using the mouse, you can use the TAB key
to move the highlighted/box area to the PREVIEW button and then press
the ENTER key.) When done viewing screensaver, just move your mouse.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.

Here's a better way to manually start a screensaver. Open up your C: drive
and right click on the WINDOWS folder. Click on ADVANCED OPTIONS and
make sure that there is a check mark by Search system folders, Search
hidden folders, and Search subfolders. Leave Case sensitive unchecked.
Enter ".scr" in the filename. Click on Search. You will see a list of
all your screensavers. Right Click on one and select SEND TO, and choose
"Desktop (make shortcut)". Presto, any time you want to see your
screensaver run, you can simply double click the shortcut icon on your desktop. return to top

F. HOW TO CHANGE THE NUMBER OF MINUTES OF INACTIVITY BEFORE A SCREENSAVER STARTS.
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Change the number shown in the WAIT box.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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G. THE PICTURES LOOK FUNNY ON MY MONITOR.
If the screensaver pictures look funny on your monitor, you might want to check
the video settings for your monitor. Chances are, your current settings are set
to something like "256 colors". I believe that your pictures look best when
you video setting is "True Color", "High Color", "Highest(32 bit)" or something
similar. These are "Color Quality" settings. There is a related setting called
"Screen Resolution" or "Screen area". This affects how big the icons and fonts
are displayed on your monitor. Sometimes, you cannot change the "Color Quality"
without changing the "Screen Resolution". So, if you really want a higher
color quality for better looking pictures, then you may have to go with bigger
icons and fonts. (Interestingly, the smaller the screen resolution/area, the
bigger the icons and fonts). Here is how to change your Color Quality setting:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SETTINGS tab.
4. Change the setting shown in the Color Qulity box. The best settings
for your monitor (in terms of picture quality) are the highest level
settings. Click on the drop down box, and choose the bottom entry.
It will be the highest level available for your monitor. (Actually,
it will be the highest level available for your PC/operating system/
video card/monitor combination.
5. When you change your video settings, you may need to reboot your PC.
If you are given a choice, select the option to apply the changes
without rebooting. This will usually give you a chance to "preview"
the new setting, and to accept or reject it based on how it looks.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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H. HOW TO CHANGE HOW LONG/QUICK EACH PICTURE IS SHOWN.
Most of Bill's Northwest Screensavers allow you to choose how long each picture
should be shown before it is replaced with the next picture. Here's how:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Select the screensaver that you want to change from the list.
(Use the drop down button in the Screen saver box).
5. Click the SETTINGS box.
6. Set the VIEW IMAGES FOR (SEC) input box to the desired time.
7. Click OK to apply and exit the settings dialog.
8. Click OK to apply and exit.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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I. MY SCREENSAVER DOESN'T COVER MY ENTIRE SCREEN OR IS DISTORTED.
Some of Bill's Northwest Screensavers allow you to choose between "fitting the screen" and "filling the screen".
"Fitting the screen" means that the photo's dimensions are kept true. On a wide screen monitor, this could
result in a small black space to the left and right of the photograph image.
"Filling the screen" means that the photo will be stretched. This does not usually distort the image very much,
and it usually looks more appealing on a wide screen monitor.
WARNING: There is a 3rd option that you may also see. It is the "Normal Size" option. This may sound like a
good choice, but it isn't. Screensavers made from small images will only fill a small part of your monitor.
Most of Bill's screensavers are 1024x768, which would fill a standard 13 inch monitor, but only a portion of a
larger monitor. Bill's more recent screensavers are 2560x1920. If you choose "Normal Size" for one of those
screensavers, then only a portion of the picture will be displayed on your monitor.

Here's how to switch back and forth betwen these settings:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Select the screensaver that you want to change from the list.
(Use the drop down button in the Screen saver box).
5. Click the SETTINGS box.
6. Set the VIEW IMAGES input box to the desired setting.
7. Click OK to apply and exit the settings dialog.
8. Click OK to apply and exit.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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J. HOW TO TURN OFF THE MUSIC/AUDIO.
Music and sound effects can be fun. They can also drive you crazy. Most of Bill's screensavers do not have
music or sound effects. For the ones that do, you can easily turn off the sound by turning off your speaker
or by doing the following:
1. Start CONTROL PANEL (generally found under SETTINGS on START menu).
2. Select DISPLAY.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
4. Select the screensaver that you want to change from the list.
(Use the drop down button in the Screen saver box).
5. Click the SETTINGS box.
6. Remove the checkmark in the ENABLE SOUND box.
7. Click OK to apply and exit the settings dialog.
8. Click OK to apply and exit.
It is very important to exit this window when you are finished.
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K. IS THERE A SHORT CUT FOR STARTING THE DISPLAY PROPERTIES WINDOW?
Yes. Send $100,000 to me to learn how. Just kidding.
1. Right click your mouse in an empty area of your desktop.
2. Select PROPERTIES.
3. Select SCREEN SAVER tab.
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