Password-protected picture screensaver with floating bubbles, music, alarm clock, wallpaper changer, internet picture download, folder hiding and scheduled tasks.
The developer’s website is offline or now belongs to another site, so its last saved copy is shown instead.
Available today, from the same category.
Splendid Desktop Helper from CFsoft was a powerful screen saver that also supported many frequent operations: password protection, floating multicolor bubbles, background music, an alarm clock, wallpaper switching, one-key screensaver, automatic download of internet wallpapers, hiding and locking folders, and shutting down or performing many tasks on a schedule. It supported various picture types such as GIF, PNG and JPG, and you could add your favorite pictures (family photos and others) to its "Pictures" folder, which had "Local images" and "Internet images" subfolders.
Getting started. You downloaded the compressed file, extracted it to a folder and double-clicked "screen.exe". The first time it ran, it asked whether you wanted to set a password to protect your computer. If you skipped this, you could set it later by right-clicking the program icon in the taskbar and choosing "Modify password".
Configuration. First you chose picture types – animals, scenery, holidays, cartoons, cars, babies, games and other categories. Then you chose the picture source: by default "Internet picture", where the program downloaded pictures automatically (with a "Manage pictures" button to exclude ones you disliked), or "Local picture", where you added your own pictures to the matching folders. You could also change the picture interval, choose background music, and turn floating bubbles or automatic wallpaper changes on or off.
Using the screensaver. After clicking OK, the program went full screen with pictures and floating bubbles. If a password was set, moving the mouse opened a dialog asking for it; otherwise moving the mouse or pressing any key returned to the desktop. After the correct password, the program minimized to the taskbar (on Windows 7 you might need to click the triangle to show hidden icons). Double-clicking the icon returned to full screen; right-clicking showed options such as "Auto change wallpaper", "Set current wallpaper as default", "Restore default wallpaper", "Config" and "Modify password". The Config menu set periodic tasks, picture source, show mode, folder hiding and more.
Tasks and alarms. On first run it added a task "Go into screensaver (needs no keyboard and mouse action)" with a default period of 5 minutes, independent of the Windows screensaver time. A task "Prompt: your own message" played an alarm (replaceable "clock.mp3") with a message box.
Shortcuts. The program started with Windows by default and minimized to the taskbar. Pressing the right and left Ctrl keys together started the screensaver; if the program wasn't running, left Ctrl + left Shift + right arrow did the same.
Status: the developer's website now shows a parked page, and the program is no longer offered.