Customize screen savers in Windows 10 using secret hidden options

One of the new features of Windows Vista was the inclusion of nice, beautiful screen savers. These include Bubbles, Ribbons, Mystify and Aurora. All later versions of Windows like Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 include Bubbles, Ribbons and Mystify although Aurora and Windows Energy screensavers are omitted. Not every user knows that these screen savers have many secret hidden options for customizing their appearance and behavior. Today, we will see how to customize these screensavers in Windows 10.

Screen savers are not just for fun. You can also password-protect your PC with a screen saver so you are prompted for a password after the screen saver stops. Windows 10 includes Bubbles, Ribbons and Mystify but when you click the "Settings..." button, a message box appears with text saying that the screen saver has no options that you can set:

Tip: See All ways to access screensaver options in Windows 10.

This is not true. All the secret options can be tweaked using the Registry Editor or a special tool. Let's see both ways.

• Customize screen savers in Windows 10 using Registry
• Customize screen savers in Windows 10 using Screensavers Tweaker

Customize screen savers in Windows 10 using Registry

For every screen saver, there is a set of parameters you can create in the Registry to change its behavior.

Customize the Bubbles screen saver in Windows 10

Open Registry Editor and go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Bubbles

See how to jump to the desired registry key with one click.

Here, you can create the following 32-bit DWORD values. Note: if you are running 64-bit Windows 10, you still need to create 32-bit DWORD values.

ShowShadows
Enables or disables shadows for the bubbles. Values:
1 - enable shadows.
0 - disable shadows.

MaterialGlass
Make the bubbles transparent or opaque.
1 - show transparent bubbles.
0 - show opaque bubbles.

ShowBubbles
Makes the background of bubbles transparent or black. If the background is transparent, the bubbles will float over the screen's contents.
1 - transparent background.
0 - black background.
Warning! For some display adapters and drivers, the background of the Bubbles screen saver is always black in Windows 10. There is no fix for this issue.

TurbulenceNumOctaves
Changes the number of turbulence octaves.
Min value: 1.
Max value: 255.

TurbulenceSpeed
Changes the turbulence speed.
Min value: 0.
Max value: 10.

TurbulenceForce
Enables or disables the turbulence force.
1 - enable turbulence.
0 - disable turbulence.

Radius
Changes the size of the bubbles.

Minimal radius value: 1090000000.
Maximal radius value: 1130000000.

SphereDensity
Affects the amount of bubbles which will appear on the screen.
Minimal value(less bubbles): 1000000000.
Maximal value(more bubbles): 2100000000.

AllScreensSame
This parameter applies to multi monitor setups. When set to 1, all monitors will use the same settings for the screen saver. When it is set to 0, it is possible to configure the screen saver per screen.

SpanMultiMon
1 - the screen saver will show bubbles moving between multiple monitors.
0 - show the screen saver on every screen separately.

Customize the Ribbons screen saver in Windows 10

Open Registry Editor and go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Ribbons

The following 32-bit DWORD values are available for this screen saver:
RibbonWidth
Sets the ribbon width.
Minimal value (thin ribbons): 1000000000.
Maximal value (thick ribbons): 1080000000.

NumRibbons
Sets the number of ribbons visible on the screen.
Minimal value: 1.
Maximal value: 100.

Blur
Enables or disables the blur effect for the ribbons.
1 - enable blur.
0 - disable blur.

AllScreensSame
This parameter applies to multi monitor setups. When set to 1, all monitors will use the same settings for the screen saver. When it is set to 0, it is possible to configure the screen saver per screen.

SpanMultiMon
1 - the screen saver will show ribbons moving between multiple monitors.
0 - show the screen saver on every screen separately.

Customize the Mystify screen saver in Windows 10

Open Registry Editor and go to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Screensavers\Mystify

The following 32-bit DWORD values are available for this screen saver:
LineWidth
Sets the line width.
Minimal value (thin ribbons): 1000000000.
Maximal value (thick ribbons): 1080000000.

NumLines
Sets the number of lines visible on the screen.
Minimal value: 1.
Maximal value: 100.

Blur
Enables or disables the blur effect for lines.
1 - enable blur.
0 - disable blur.

AllScreensSame
This parameter applies to multi monitor setups. When set to 1, all monitors will use the same settings for the screen saver. When it is set to 0, it is possible to configure the screen saver per screen.

SpanMultiMon
1 - the screen saver will show ribbons moving between multiple monitors.
0 - show the screen saver on every screen separately.

Customize screen savers in Windows 10 using Screensavers Tweaker

Some time ago, I coded a simple tool which allows you to play with secret hidden parameters of screensavers using a useful GUI. It is called Screensavers Tweaker.

Screensavers Tweaker is a free, portable app which requires no installation. It is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10, for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Use the Windows 8 version in Windows 10. It works without any issues.
Here is how the app looks like:

And here is the customized Bubbles screensaver:

You can get Screensavers Tweaker from here:

Download Screensavers Tweaker

In the comments, I would like to know if you want to see these screen saver tweaking options in my Winaero Tweaker app.