How to Convert a Windows Screensaver to Linux
Windows has many built-in screensavers. These are really Windows-only executable files that are not meant to run under Linux. However, using WINE, it is sometimes (but not always) possible to run a Windows screensaver under Linux (albeit outside of the user interface most Linux distributions provide).
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Instructions
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1
Open a terminal in your distribution of choice.
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2
Get the necessary WINE package for your distribution.
For Red Hat-based distributions, type:
yum install wine
For Debian-based distributions, type:
apt-get install wine
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3
In the terminal, run winecfg, and under the "Applications" tab, for "Windows Version," select the version of Windows under which your screensaver was meant to run. Close the winecfg application.
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4
In the terminal, navigate to wherever the screensaver (which is a file with an SCR extension) and type:
wine ./<your screensaver> /s
where "<your screensaver>" is the name of the file you want to run (e.g., "myscreensaver.scr").
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Tips & Warnings
If you want the screensaver to activate every time you boot into Linux, you can create a script file with the command from Step 4, and then use your session manager to make that script run at boot time.
These steps will not work for all screensavers.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit ace image by Dave from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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This accomplishes nothing other than pointing out a Windows screensaver is actually an executable with a different extension. What does this have to do with using Windows screensavers under Linux? Zero, zip, nothing.
