Screensaver is one of the Windows style elements. Earlier the Starfield in Norton Commander was, in fact, the only graphic program used as screen saver. In recent years, when Windows 95, Windows98, Windows 2000) have been released, the amount of Screen Saver applications became very large(probably, more than 10000). When looking for the screensaver, one can see both masterpieces and boring, not interesting hand-made articles. Now the screensaver is really a genre of Computer Art. Almost all the download sites devoted to freeware and shareware have Screen Saver Section. Hundreds of sites allows you the possibility to download screensavers and only screensavers. The most popular sites such as ZdNet and CNET include "screensaver of the day" to their e-mail notifications.
So, the users(probably, not all, but the big part of them) like to customize their desktop. And they can find all necessary things in the Internet for free. The main goal of the screensaver is to relax and cheer up you after the hard work. To do this, Screensaver creates fun and entertaining show on your screen. Good music often accompanies this show(MIDI tunes, WAV files). Besides that, the special music screensavers exist(we can mention screensavers for WinAmp, Lava Player and others). These screensavers make music "visual". Other applications transform any sound from the sound card to the images(Geiss).
The power of processors, RAM amount, hard disk capacity are growing every day. Many screensavers now requires enormous resources to work properly. These screensavers don't work or work very slow on "yesterday computers"(we can call "yesterday computer" all the PC manufactured more than 6 months ago).
On author's opinion, the screensaver must meet the following conditions:
1. It must be beautiful show for relaxation. Fine music must accompany this show.
2. Screensaver must not devour the power of your computer.
3. One of the main conditions is non-complicative installation/deinstallation. The settings must allow to turn sound on/off, to change animation speed.
4. In general, all screensavers must have an original idea. And this author's idea must be incarnated in a few animation frames.
In The Art of Screensaver Site you can find many original screensavers which meet the requirements listed above. The most of distributive files have size less than 300 Kb. Everyone can find here excellent screensavers: from animated bikini- clad woman to magic crystals and balls flying on the screen. The best Russian music accompanies these shows. Let's go to my site The Art of Screensaver and download all these screensavers for free!