Screensavers

The following are screensavers available for download. Scroll down for instructions on creating your own screensaver with our imagery and to view instructions on saving imagery as your wallpaper or desktop background on your computer.

1. Astronaut photographed cities (1.6 MB)
2. Astronaut photographed images obtained dynamically from this site (15.7 KB)
   
   To use this, 1) download the file; 2) extract (unzip) EarthImagesScreenSaver.scr to your hard disk; 3) right-click and select "Install". This application requires Microsoft® .NET® Framework 2.0, which can be obtained here. Selecting another screen saver removes this one from the list unless you put it in your Windows®' System32 folder.
   
   Images for this screen saver are taken from our Earth From Space collection. This screensaver uses a subset of the Earth From Space list that is filtered to remove records for older photographs. The current filtered list used by the screensaver is here.
   
   Note: The compiler's method of trapping of keyboard events does not work if the screensaver is being password protected. So to get the screensaver to stop if you have password protected it, move or click the mouse.

There are a number of commercially-available software programs that take one or more digital images and make them into a screen saver. Images downloaded from this site that are approximately the screen resolution of your monitor (usually 640 x 480 pixels to 1024 x 768 pixels) are appropriate for use in these programs. Larger images can be downloaded, and cropped and resized using image viewing software, and made appropriate for use in screen saver programs.

It is also possible to download the images and use them in screensavers or wallpaper choice that are built in to your operating system.

If you are using Apple Mac OS® X or Microsoft® Windows® XP, you can use these images to create a screensaver without installing additional software. Simply follow the instructions below. If you are using other versions of Microsoft® Windows® or Apple Mac OS®, there are many programs available which will create a screensaver from images saved on your hard drive. Many of these are shareware programs (that is, they can be downloaded from the web and registered for a small fee if you decide to keep the program).

Microsoft® Windows® XP:

Save the images in your My Pictures folder. Then right click on a blank area of your desktop and select Properties. Click the Screen Saver tab and select My Pictures Slideshow from the Screen Saver dropdown. Click Apply.

Apple Mac OS® X:

Save the images in your Pictures folder. Then in System Preferences, choose Screensavers and select the Slide Show screensaver.

There are a number of ways to save images as your desktop wallpaper. For a PC machine with Microsoft® Windows®, you may right-click on the image (if you are in an internet browser window) and then click on "Set as Background" or "Save as Wallpaper." For an Apple Macintosh®, save the desired image to your desktop or someplace that you can remember on your computer. Then click on the apple on the task bar, then "Appearance", then click the "Desktop" tab, then click "Place Picture," and browse through your folders to the location where you saved the image that you want.

Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft® Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Apple Mac OS® X, Apple Mac OS® and Apple Macintosh® are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.