The tower PCs of the 1990s may now be landfill, but decades later the screensavers that danced across their screens are still burned into memory.
Whether it’s winged toasters, flying Windows icons or a sprawling network of 3D pipes, the classic screensavers of yesteryear made a lasting impression.
Revisit some of the best-known screensavers from Windows history, dating right back to the very first release of Windows.
Jump to Windows screensavers through the ages:
Berkeley Systems’ After Dark for Windows 1.0 screensaver program was released for PC in March 1991.
The collection of 35 screensavers included the massively popular Flying Toasters.
Aquatic Realm offers a glimpse of life under the sea, as marine creatures go about their business at the bottom of the ocean.
In Clocks, three types of clocks float move about the screen showing the current time.
Down the Drain liquefied your desktop and saw it spiral down a drain.
As the name suggest, Fade Away, made your desktop fade into nothingness.
Perhaps the most famous screensaver in the collection, Flying Toasters, saw winged appliances fill your screen alongside slices of toast.
GeoBounce let you choose a geometric shape, which would then spin and bounce around the display.
Globe saw a rotating world drift across the display.
One for science junkies, GraphStat, displayed random graphs on the screen.
Balls of varying colors bounce across the screen, leaving trails in their wake in Gravity.
As the name suggests, Spiral Gyro, draws patterns reminiscent of those created by Spyrograph toys.
A simple option, Logo just made an image float across the display. While it defaulted to the After Dark logo, you could choose your own image instead.
The intricate patterns generated by the Magic screensaver were in a state of constant flux.
Messages would display text that would float around the screen, with users able to write their own messages or choose from a number of humorous default options.
As you’d expect, this screensaver transformed your screen into an abstract style reminiscent of the painter Piet Mondrian.
3D mountains from a planet of your choice were rendered on screen in Mountains.
This creepy option showed eyes of nocturnal creatures that peered at you out of a black screen.
Punch Out decimated your desktop with a hole puncher, complete with optional sound effects.
Puzzle transformed your desktop into a grid of sliding tiles that randomly shuffle themselves.
These colorful circles radiating outwards represented rain drops hitting the screen.
Rose generated shifting and complex patterns that grew over time.
Tie-dye patterns ebb and flow across the desktop in Satori.
This rather plain screensaver saw solid, colored shapes gradually fill the screen.
Eye-catching spheres of different colors are rendered one by one in Spheres.
The Spotlight screensaver blacked out the screen apart from a spotlight that revealed parts of Windows’ desktop.
Starry Night recreated a city skyline, complete with lights blinking on and off in buildings, red beacons on top of the tallest skyscrapers, and the odd flash of lightning.
Rain Storm unleashed a torrent of bad weather on screen, with driving rain and lightning.
Dazzling Moire-like patterns dance across the screen in String Theory.
As these psychedelic spirals and squares balloon outwards they create a vertiginous optical illusion.
This simulated laser light show recreated an explosion of light across the screen.
Recreating the effect of engaging warp drive in Star Trek, Warp made stars swirl towards you.
Hungry worms squirm across the screen and nibble away at the desktop.
Similar to String Theory, Wrap Around presented more Moire patterns that twisted across the screen.
This simple screensaver projected bolts of lightning across the screen.
The Flying Windows screensaver was one of several default options with Windows 3.1.
Reminiscent of the Mystify screensaver from After Dark for Windows 1.0, this Windows 3.1 offering bounced a constantly shifting pattern around the screen.
The Starfield screensaver simulated flying through a field of stars.
Released in the summer of 1994, After Dark 3.0 offered 28 screensavers, some of which were interactive.
The Artist screensaver, allowed you to choose an image, such as the Windows Splash screen, and a medium, such as Pastel, which would then be drawn on screen.
Bad Dog!, saw a mischevious canine digging holes, scratching the walls, shedding fur, and even relieving itself in a trash can.
You Bet Your Head was an interactive trivia game in which animated contestants would be flattened by the MC, a hammer, for wrong answers. To answer the questions yourself, you pressed Caps Lock and chose a numbered answer.
Creepy crawlies swarmed over your desktop in Bugs, steering clear of the Baits Motel
Similar to the earlier After Dark screensaver, Clocks 3.0, saw six different timepieces float across the screen displaying the current time.
Motorcycle stunt man Daredevil Dan raced his bike across the screen while making risky jumps over buses and through flaming hoops, occasionally having to be rescued by an ambulance.
An endless list of simulated DOS commands streamed down the page in the DOS Shell screensaver.
In Fish Pro fish and other marine creatures swam back and forth above the seabed.
The return of the famous Flying Toasters saw flocks of the home appliances fly across the screen, often performing tricks, while slices of toast soared alongside.
Patterns swam outwards from the center of the image in Frost and Fire, as various colors were mixed in.
A oscillating gravitational field pulled random Windows icons every which way as they flew across the screen.
Draw Morph let you choose from various stop motion animated figures, such as Pipecleaner Man, who performed acrobatics while walking across the screen. You could also create your own series of images to be animated.
Warping patterns had a hypnotic effect in the Nirvana, screensaver.
Randomly generated sentences filled up the display in the aptly titled Nonsense screensaver.
Another laser light show screensaver, Photon dazzled with its bright patterns.
Like the first After Dark screensaver, Puzzle rearranged the desktop into a sliding grid of tiles.
Three rodents raced round a track in Rat Race, with users able to set their skill level, ranging from Drop Out to Professional.
Ray adorned the desktop with colorful, transparent, rotating shapes that drifted across the screen.
Hundreds of metal and plastic balls bounce across the screen in Rebound.
More elaborate tie-dye patterns swirled round the screen in the updated Satori.
As the name suggests, Slide Show presented a carousel of images of your choice.
The Star Trek-inspired Warp! screensaver returned for After Dark 3.0.
Another returning screensaver, Spheres fills the display with voluminous, colored balls.
This time around the Spotlight screensaver illuminates the desktop with multiple spotlights.
The mesmerizing Zooommm! screensaver created the illusion of moving through a colorful tube.
Trekkies got a treat in 1992, when Berkeley Systems released Star Trek: The Screen Saver.
A favorite was called Final Exam, which combined an interactive Star Trek trivia game and screensaver.
The Mission screensaver cycled through images from different Star Trek episodes, such as this one from The Corbomite Maneuver episode showing Balok.
Scotty’s Files screensaver let Trekkies geek out over technical schematics of ships and a variety of devices, including a Phaser and a Tricorder.
The Sickbay screensaver recreated the readouts from the bed panels in Star Trek episodes, complete with the familiar heart beat sound effect.
This visually arresting scene is from the Star Trek episode the Tholian Web, in which the Enterprise is caught in an energy-sapping web spun by the Tholians, an alien race.
These warbling critters are straight out of The Trouble with Tribbles episode, and continue to pile up until they block the desktop.
This themed collection of 40 Microsoft Scenes Sierra Club Nature Collection screensavers and desktop backgrounds was released in 1994.
Released on the same day as Windows 95, the retail package of the Microsoft Plus! Companion for Windows 95 bundled a number of different screensavers.
The Dangerous Creatures screensaver saw sharks and stingrays swimming around the screen accompanied by the relaxing sound of bubbling water.
Sea planes soared through the clouds in this screensaver.
Aping the style of the then nascent first-person shooter genre, Windows 95’s iconic 3D Maze screensaver endlessly wandered a redbrick maze.
This screensaver displayed sketches of some of da Vinci’s most famous inventions, such as these wings designed for human flight.
This haunted house screensaver was brought alive by the sound of creaking doors, a pipe organ, and fluttering bats.
Furry caterpillars crawled across a bed of leaves in this screensaver.
A lens moved back and forth across the screen in the Science screensaver, with users able to configure the the size, speed and type of the lens.
The Spiral lens from the Science screensaver traverses a psychedelic background.
Football strategies were chalked onto the board in this screensaver.
A blast from the past, this screensaver featured a man listening to a vintage radio show while reading a paper, together with images of radio announcers and antique phones, set to the sound of old radio shows and ringing phones.
The 3D Text screensaver in Windows 95 OSR2 and Windows NT had a hidden feature that enabled it to display the names of 17 major volcanoes in the Northwest of the United States.
Released on the same day as Windows 98, the Microsoft Plus! 98 Companion for Windows 98 featured a range of screensavers alongside the new utilities, games, and desktop themes.
The screensaver above submerged the desktop wallpaper, complete with ripples on the surface.
Among the various slides in this screensaver was this impressive shot of the moon.
In a gag from the comic, this screensaver showed Quincy the iguana flying through the air while tied to a rocket.
This screensaver cycled through images from classic horror films.
This lively offering put on a display of dancing musical notes.
This screensaver cycled through classic scenes from the famous comic strip, such as this image of Joe Cool and Woodstock.
A later version of 3D Pipes in Windows 2000 had a secret feature that hid teapoints in the joints between pipes.
The classic Windows 98 screensaver.
The screensaver showed off a collection of what was, at the time, impressively rendered 3D objects.
Hearts floated across the screen in this themed offering.
In this screensaver, different shapes, such as 3D blocks, pulled the wallpaper with them as they moved around the desktop.
Among the selected images displayed by this screensaver were this world famous photograph of Florence Owens Thompson taken during the Great Depression.
This screensaver showed the desolate landscape of an alien world with bizarre creatures above its surface.
Guitars filled up the display and formed intriguing patterns in this screensaver.
Images from various comic strips were displayed by this screensaver, such as this example showing Mike Doonesbury video conferencing.
This screensaver added a bit of style to the desktop, showing a range of black and white images of models.
There was no ignoring this screensaver, thanks to the boing sounds that accompanied Garfield and Odie bouncing across the screen.
A screensaver that showed a mix of fascinating patterns formed by geometric shapes.
This slideshow explored a collection of amazing photographs.
Leaves drifted across the screen in this beautiful and calming screensaver.
Nick Heath is a computer science student and was formerly a journalist at TechRepublic and ZDNet.
