Remember Windows XP Screen Saver? Heres How You Can Still Download and Use Them Today!

Hey guys, I’m back again! Today, I wanna share something pretty cool I messed around with – getting those old-school Windows XP screensavers on my Windows 11 machine. Yeah, you heard that right, those classic, nostalgic screensavers from back in the day.

So, I started by digging around the internet ’cause, you know, I had no idea where to start. I found a few guides and stuff, but they were kinda confusing. But hey, I’m not one to give up easily. I stumbled upon this ZIP file, which was labeled “Windows XP Screensavers”. I guess that was a good sign, huh?

Download and Extract

First things first, I downloaded that ZIP file. It had all those classic screensavers like 3D FlowerBox, 3D Flying Objects, and the iconic 3D Pipes. It was like a trip down memory lane just looking at the names. After the download, I extracted the files to a new folder. Nothing fancy, just making sure everything was organized.

Installing the Screensavers

Now, this part got a little tricky. I right-clicked on each screensaver file and hit “Install”. A couple of them worked just like that, but others, not so much. For those stubborn ones, I had to get my hands dirty with the good ol’ Command Prompt. I opened it up with admin rights – that’s important, or else it won’t work properly.

Then, I navigated to the folder where I extracted the screensavers using the “cd” command. I’m not gonna lie; I had to look up how to do that ’cause my Command Prompt skills are a bit rusty. Once I was in the right folder, I typed in a command to copy the screensaver files to the System32 folder. It looked something like “copy .scr C:WindowsSystem32”. I pressed Enter, and bam, the files were copied.

Setting Up the Screensavers

Alright, almost there! I opened the Control Panel by pressing Windows Key + R and typing control panel. After Control Panel opened, I searched for “screensaver”. I clicked on “Change screen saver”, and guess what? There they were! All those classic XP screensavers, right there in the list. I picked my favorite, 3D Pipes, set the wait time, and hit Apply.

And that’s it! Now, whenever my computer is idle for a bit, those sweet, nostalgic 3D Pipes show up on my screen. It’s like having a little piece of the past right there on my modern Windows 11 setup. Pretty neat, right?

It was a bit of a journey, with some trial and error, but totally worth it. If you’re feeling nostalgic or just want to try something different, give it a shot. It’s easier than you might think!