Bubbles screensaver has black background

Anonymous
2012-10-26T15:09:27+00:00

In Windows 7, the Bubbles screen saver created bubbles that moved over the top of whatever was on my screen at the time. 

In Windows 8, if I go to the screen saver settings and preview the Bubbles screensaver, it shows the same behavior – bubbles moving over the top of my existing desktop.

But when the Bubbles screensaver actually activates in Windows 8, the bubbles only appear over a background color which I selected.

Is there something wrong with my settings or video drivers?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Email and communications

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-10-26T15:10:02+00:00

There is nothing wrong with your screensaver settings, or your video drivers and system. . 

A design change was made in Windows 8 that prevents screensavers from drawing over an image of the desktop.  Any screensaver that previously drew over the desktop, such as Bubbles, will instead draw over a black background.  The screensaver preview is incorrectly showing Windows 7 behavior.

Was this answer helpful?

200+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2012-12-01T20:38:41+00:00

That was already answered above by a Microsoft Forum Moderator

"A design change was made in Windows 8 that prevents screensavers from drawing over an image of the desktop. Any screensaver that previously drew over the desktop, such as Bubbles, will instead draw over a black background. The screensaver preview is incorrectly showing Windows 7 behavior."

Was this answer helpful?

70+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments No comments

107 additional answers

Sort by: Newest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-09-12T03:08:17+00:00

    I have a few other screen savers that do not work because of this bug. One was a fish tank and now the fish swim in a purple back ground instead of the tank ?  So it doesn't just effect the desktop wall paper.   

    Same thing with a couple of others that should show a scene different from the wall paper but that you select with in the screen saver. Instead I get purple (the start screen color)

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-08-25T10:44:19+00:00

    I have found a workaround that works on the desktop, although it does not work on the Metro interface.

    I downloaded the software "Watch4Idle" and set it to execute the screensaver after a certain amount of idle time. Easy.

    As always it's us users and other minor companies that have to work to fix these bugs (Oops, I meant design changes) that Microsoft keeps forcing on us.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-23T03:38:35+00:00

    There is nothing wrong with your screensaver settings, or your video drivers and system. .

    A design change was made in Windows 8 that prevents screensavers from drawing over an image of the desktop.  Any screensaver that previously drew over the desktop, such as Bubbles, will instead draw over a black background.  The screensaver preview is incorrectly showing Windows 7 behavior.

    Wow. That seems pretty stupid to overlook the preview when Microsoft apparently made a conscious decision to make the bubble screensaver not draw over a desktop image. If they hadn't have overlooked it, then maybe we all would have just thought that they changed the way the bubbles screensaver works, but no... now they have us all worrying that our video drivers or system are messed up.

    Just fix the problem. This shouldn't have been changed to begin with, or at least it should have been included as an option.

    What I don't understand is that when I run the bubbles.scr program by itself it works the way we all want it to. Shows that the file itself is not messed up, just something Microsoft has done to make it not work.

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments No comments