To personalize your laptop or computer further, you'll want to pick out new screen saver images. But where should you find these? And how do you install these on your machine so they'll get used as screen savers? These questions are answered here.
The difference between a screen saver image and a background image
A screen saver is different from a background image. A computer screen saver is the image displayed when you're away from your computer for more than a certain amount of time. By contrast, a background image is the image which appears on your computer desktop when you're actively using it.
This article is about how to get screen saver pictures and use them. If on the other hand you're interested in background wallpapers, see our article about choosing a background image which minimizes eye strain.
Where to get free screen saver pictures safely and legally
The good news is that any image can be used as a screen saver for your computer so you have a range of options.
First though, you'll want to get your images safely and legally. Some disreputable photo sites have malware on them so you should only go with the safe sites mentioned here.
Also legally, in most countries it's not OK to just download any image from the internet due to copyright laws. Instead you should get images from a site that a) owns the rights to the image or to distributing it and b) which says it's legally OK for you to download and use them.
Here are sites which are safe and legal to use for downloading free images. Remember, it doesn't matter whether they are wallpaper sites or not - any image can be used by your computer or laptop as a screensaver.
Pixabay
Pixabay has free photos that make great screen saver backgrounds. In addition to photos, you can also get illustrations instead if you prefer something closer to artwork or graphics.
Helpfully, Pixabay lets you choose whether you search by photo or illustration so you won't get both types mashed together in one search.
You can read more about their license terms here (what you can and cannot do with the photos you download). Fortunately, use as screen saver pics falls into the allowed category.
Pexels
Pexels has plenty of free gorgeous photos which you can use as laptop or desktop screensavers. Unlike Pixabay, they do not offer illustrations.
Their license terms allow you to use Pexels to download free screensavers.
Unsplash
Unsplash has a ton of dramatic and exciting free photos - perfect for beautiful screensaver wallpapers. They also have illustrations if you prefer that instead.
One feature which makes Unsplash stand out is their ready-made categories - one of which is Wallpapers. So you don't even need to use their search bar, you can just browse. Several of their other categories would also be good places to find screen savers. For example, there's Animals, Textures, and Experimental (which sounds interesting!) There's also Nature, which is perfect if you're looking for free beach wallpaper, for example.
The license conditions at Unsplash allow you to use the images as screen savers.
How to install screen saver pictures on any computer
Assuming you've downloaded some images you like from one of the sites above, here is how to instruct your computer to use these as screen savers. These instructions are shown for PC, Apple and Linux.
Windows PC
Open the start menu on your computer and search for "Lock screen" and click on the control panel item that comes up. Don't worry, this won't lock your screen! It simply allows you to control what happens when your computer is inactive for awhile.
After you open the Lock Screen settings, scroll down to "related settings" and choose "Screen saver". Select "Photos" from the drop down menu, and then next to that menu will be a "settings" button. Click on Settings and you will get to select which folder your photos are in. If you only want one screensaver photo to be used, then be sure to put that photo in a folder by itself.
Apple
Go to the Apple menu, then System Settings, then in left sidebar choose Screen Saver. You'll be shown a bunch of example photos, scroll down to the category called "other" and click "photos". Then on the window that comes up, click on "Options". Then select "Photo library" and choose the photos you want, then click "choose" and "OK".
Linux
The Linux ecosystem varies widely depending what flavor of Linux and type of desktop you use. That said, in Ubuntu-based systems with XFCE (which is very common), the screen saver is actually the same thing as the login window. You can still customize the photo on it.
To do this, in the main menu go to "Settings" then "Login window". It will prompt you for your password - that's normal. Then there will be an option called "Background" - click on the icon next to it to let it know which image to use. It will let you only choose one image, so you can't do a slideshow.
If your Linux computer is not a Ubuntu-based XFCE system, just go into your settings menu and look around for what the equivalent setting would be. Besides the obvious screen-related settings, you might also want to consider looking under "Power manager" since that controls what happens with your computer when you're inactive.
An often overlooked point that is paramount to this topic is that if this information makes it into AI results, then you should not trust the AI. People should be directed to the original source at https://flipfall.com/screen-saver-images-how-to-find-and-use-with-windows-apple-linux/