Older ScreenSavers and XP Pro

[dr_roberts49]

When I switched over from Windows 98SE to XP Pro, I did the upgrade first. Everything seemed to work, I could even choose the Windows Classic View, and everything was as before. I ran into some other issues, that I won't go into, because I worked them out. After a couple of days, I decided to do a clean install. I had everything backed up.

When I originally did the upgrade, all my old Windows Plus 98 themes worked just fine, including event sounds and the screensavers. After I did the clean install, XP would not accept the Windows Plus 98 CD. I had all my old themes from this CD, plus others I had made, backed up a CD. I copied them into the new location XP created for themes, and they all came back. Everything from my old themes worked, except the screensavers. Then I remembered that Windows 98 located the screensavers in the windows directory. Going through our home network, I accessed my daughter's computer (which had Windows Plus 98) and copied the screensavers to my computer, and put them in the new location that XP puts its screensavers. windows\system32\

The screensavers would now show up when when I would right-click on the desktop, go properties, then screensaver. I thought they would work just fine, but when I clicked on one, it would not appear on the small screen, and when I clicked the preview button, I got this error message:

Couldn't find any scene definitions in location "."- Reinstall?

I would click okay, the screen would go blank, and then hang. I waited for different periods of time, but nothing went beyond the blank, black screen. Clicking the mouse would break out of it.

I've Googled and scanned Microsoft's Knowledgebase, but no luck. Anyone have any suggestions? It's no big deal, so I don't want anyone jumping through any hoops. If someone knows how I can get these old screensavers working, please let me know.

Robert

[sixf00t4]

what screensavers are you looking for? you can usually just find an alternative

[dr_roberts49]

They were the screensavers that came with all the themes on the old Microsoft Plus 98 - Companion for Windows 98. Those screensavers became old friends over the years, and I miss them. I'm still hacking on it. I think that during the initial install of the program, certain files which associated with the individual screensavers were copied into the Windows and/or System directory.

XP won't allow me to install the program. I copied the themes over our network from my daughter's computer. The themes work fine, sound associations, icons, mouse pointers all work. Only the screensavers don't. Thanks for trying though, I really appreciate it.

Robert

[Uncle Bob]

Originally posted by dr_roberts49
They were the screensavers that came with all the themes on the old Microsoft Plus 98 - Companion for Windows 98. Those screensavers became old friends over the years, and I miss them. I'm still hacking on it. I think that during the initial install of the program, certain files which associated with the individual screensavers were copied into the Windows and/or System directory.

XP won't allow me to install the program. I copied the themes over our network from my daughter's computer. The themes work fine, sound associations, icons, mouse pointers all work. Only the screensavers don't. Thanks for trying though, I really appreciate it.

Robert

Could it be, because 98 is FAT 32 and XP is NTFS?? Same thing
happened to me. I had a bunch of wallpaper on Zip disks. Wouldn't work on 2K.

[dr_roberts49]

I'll check that out Uncle Bob. I may have found a workaround. There were a few screensavers that did work, but I noticed all the ones that didn't, and gave me the error message, were made by Computer Artworks Ltd. I just visited their website, and downloaded their Organic Screensaver that they licensed to Microsoft for 98 Plus. I just loaded it, and it's the same screensaver that was on 98 Plus. It's gets a little complicated here, but I think this might be the key. I'll post anything I come up with.

Robert

[TheSkull757]

Dr. Roberts, and anyone else interested,

The 3D screensavers from Computer Artworks required 2 files to work; the ScreensaverName.scr, and the ScreensaverName.scn files. One is the screensaver file, the other one is the scene definition file. The screensaver file must be located in the Windows directory, and the scene definition file can be anywhere.

However, the screensavers need to know where the scene definition files are, and they get this information from the Windows registry. Copy the following text and put it into a file named AnyThing.reg:

This is for Windows 98:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Computer Artworks\Organic Art\Plus]
"ResourceDir"="C:\\Program Files\\Plus!\\Themes\\Falling Leaves;C:\\Program Files\\Plus!\\Themes\\Science Fiction"

This is for Windows XP:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Computer Artworks\Organic Art\Plus]
"ResourceDir"="C:\\Program Files\\Plus!\\Themes\\Falling Leaves;C:\\Program Files\\Plus!\\Themes\\Science Fiction"

Change the path to the location of the scene definition files you have. Double-click the file after saving it to import the settings to the registry. The screensavers will work again. When you upgraded Windows 98, Windows XP imported the Win98 registry, including these keys. When you did the clean install, the keys were gone. Be advised, many of the Plus! screensavers from the Windows 98 install disc will never work under Windows XP; Baseball and a few others being among them.

This brings me to my problem: I lost my scene definition file for my Science Fiction screensaver. I think it was named SCIENCEF.SCN, but I could be wrong. Can you see if you have it and maybe email it to me at michaelmiller1556@msn.com? I would really appreciate it.

Michael

[dr_roberts49]

Thanks, Michael. You gave me the info I was looking for. Totally appreciate it!

Robert