SlideShowScreenSaver Description

Benefits of using this Windows-based slide show screen saver:

• It plays a slide show of jpeg images and video files, randomly selected from a folder (and its sub-folders) of your choice.
• It works even if there are an extremely large number of images or videos (tested with >100,000 files)
• It has a settings dialog that allows you to control essential features
• It is free
• It is a code-signed application (security)
• You can ask the developer fo new features by submitting a Github issue
• As it is open source, other developers can examine, modify, and even fork the C#/WPF code
• It is easy to download and install (see Installation instructions below)

When the slide show is running:

• images and videos are switched after a user-selected duration (in settings)
• videos are muted and played for only a user-selected duration , which means it works well with long videos files
• users can skip forwards/backwards using the arrow keys
• user-selected metadata fields are displayed (e.g., folder and/or file name) discretely

When the slide show is paused (space bar):

• users can skip forwards/backwards using the arrow keys

• video controls appear and the video control is unmuted, allowing you full control over the video

• Settings options includes:

  • choose the folder containing your desired images/videos (default is your Pictures folder)
  • choose the length of time to display each image/video
  • choose whether the slide show should include videos
  • set a duration for limiting video playback length (optional)
  • whether or not to show the image file / folder name, and if so whether some or all of the file path should be included.

Shortcuts

• Spacebar: pause / resume the slide show (a paused show will auto-resume after 1 minute)
• Left/Right arrow: pause the slide show and manualy navigate to the previous/next slide
• Any other key or mouse press: exit the screen saver
• When paused, video controls will appear atop a video allowing you to play and do other video operations.
  • video controls include play/pause, frame forward/backwards, mute/unmute, volume control, auto-repeat and others

**Installation instructions **

1. Download the lastest release: a. Click SlideShowScreenSaver (latest) in the Releases area on the right panel of the Github window, b. Click the zip file SlideShowScreenSaver-.zip c. Unzip it.
2. Move the unzippped folder to a location of your chosing. and open the folder. You will see a large number of files - that is because we include Microsoft's .Net with the program to make it completely self-contained.
3. Find the file SlideShowScreenSaver.scr
4. Right click on SlideShowScreenSaver.scr and choose Install.
5. The Windows screensaver settings panel should appear. Adjust the settings to point to the folder (and sub-folders) containing your jpeg mages and video files.

Programming notes if rebuilding from source

• Uses C#, WPF and built atop of .Net using Visual Studio 2026.
• To update RequiredDlls in future (e.g. when FFME or FFMEVideoPlayerControlLib is updated): rebuild FFMEVideoPlayerControlLib, then copy the new DLLs into RequiredDlls manually.
• Note that code-signing is only included in the pre-built version
• Thanks to various others who provided online examples of how to code a screensaver. I used and modified bits of their code to create this screensaver.
• Thanks to Claude, which was used in a later version to include videos in the SlideShowScreenSaver

Creator

Saul Greenberg saul@ucalgary.ca