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?

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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.

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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."

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-07-12T21:22:48+00:00

    I agree, I too need to see what is in the background. What's wrong with Microsoft that they cannot fix this & revert to the previous way Bubbles worked?

    Surely they should be responding to this customer feedback?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-21T22:20:17+00:00

    I have figured out a solution.

    What you need is called "IdleStart" and can be downloaded here: http://appsapps.info/idlestart.php

    Here is another mirror http://mir.cr/XXPWGSGC

    Put the program in your windows\system32 folder then create a shortcut to it on the desktopThen right click on the shortcut and click properties.

    In target, put

    C:\Windows\System32\IdleStart.exe 200 "C:\Windows\System32\Bubbles.scr"

    You can replace 200 with the amount of seconds you want

    Then open it, and it will show up in the taskbar. Hope it works. I use it on windows 10.

    That's it. You can also add the shortcut to your startup folder.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-11-27T03:00:19+00:00

    Hi Jimmy,

       I am not the most savvy computer person, but I followed your method and I think I may have it, but I do get the error message "Cannot find script file" for the Bubbles screensaver when I try to test run it....do you have any suggestions to why this may be? Your feedback is appreciated, thanks in advance!!!!

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