Download/HomepageIt should come as no great surprise that choosing
a screen saver is a very personal, subjective exercise. What I
might find appealing, others might consider to be a great bore. I
am sure we have all experienced the situation where we have found
a description of a screen saver that sounded very interesting, we
have downloaded the file and installed the saver, only to be very
disappointed with some aspect of the program. Then off it comes
and we continue our search.
The Amazing JPEG Screen Saver is a saver with a difference.
First, as it's name implies, it will show only Jpeg's, secondly,
you do not have to rely on what is supplied with the program,
rather, you use your own library of images. This idea appeals to
me far more than simply having to accept what someone else thinks
I want on my system.
Installing the saver is fairly straightforward. Unzip the program
and then move three files to your Windows/System directory. Next
go into Control Panel, click on Screen Saver and choose AJPEG32
as the saver. Next click on settings and you are presented with a
good array of options from which to choose.
You can Select New Image to search your directories for Jpeg's,
then click on the first of the images to make it your current
file. Next you choose from the Image Movement section and here
you have four options which are Float, Random Positions, Parade,
or Stay Put. The Float choice moves your image around the screen
in a very slow motion and is my personal favorite. Random jumps
your image from one screen location to another ( go into
Additional Parameters to adjust it's speed, I did not do this the
first time and my eyes could barely keep up to the image ).
Parade moves your image slowly across the screen in a straight
line from left to right, then it reappears again at a slightly
lower position to march to the right again. Stay Put is exactly
as it implies with your image staying positioned in the center of
the screen. You can choose Enable Screen Splits and Enable
Progressive Loads. This option allows those with slower PC's to
begin seeing the image form slowly on screen instead of a blank
screen until the next image is processed.
Click on the Additional Parameters button and you can the Pause
between image movements ( for the Random choice ), also the Image
Step in pixels, the time each image stays on your screen before
it changes and even the Image Size. The help file is more than
adequate to answer any question you might have. Support for the
program is offered via the author's Homepage and the program can
be purchased by mail ( you can request it be e-mailed to you ),
or by credit card. See the homepage for additional information.
In conclusion, I really liked this program and would highly
recommend it for those of you who have a lot of Jpeg's and want
to set up your own personal screen saver. A brief note about the
"nag". As your image floats around the screen there is
a single line at the top which states that this is a
Demonstration Shareware Version of the program. I have my own
personal theory about "nags" but I won't impose it upon
those of you reading this review. It is enough to say that at
least it is not too intrusive and does not hinder your ability to
judge the programs merits. The price is right and it performs
very well, can we ask for more. Well I guess we always do, don't
we?
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