The original purpose of the screen saver feature was to prevent burn-in in CRT displays. These days, users need not worry about burn-ins thanks to LCD and LED technologies. This could be the reason why Microsoft is no longer adding new screen savers.
Today, most users use the screen saver feature to improve privacy when they are not around. Turning on and using the screen saver feature in Windows 10 reasonably easy, although you need to perform a few more clicks than earlier to open Screen saver settings.
In addition to built-in screen savers, there are third-party tools available to set your own video file as a screen saver in Windows. Photos management software such as Google Picasa offers an option to use photos as screen savers.
Use photos as screen saver in Windows 10
Luckily, you don’t need to use a third-party tool to set photo(s) as a screensaver on your Windows 10 computer. You can use the built-in screensaver feature in Windows 10 to set pictures as a screensaver in Windows 10. Here is how to do it.
You can either set a single photo or multiple photos as a screen saver in Windows 10. When you set multiple photos, Windows 10 will show these photos as a slideshow, when the screen saver is running.
Also read: How to enable screen saver in Windows 11.
Setting photos as screen saver in Windows 10
Complete the given below directions to make Windows 10 use photo(s) as a screensaver.
Step 1: Open the Settings app. Navigate to Personalization > Lock Screen.
Step 2: Scroll down the Lock Screen settings page to see the Screen Saver settings link. Click Screen Saver settings link to open the classic Screen Saver Settings dialog.
Step 3: From the list of screen savers available, choose Photos from the drop-down dialog.
Step 4: By default, Windows 10 uses photos saved in the Pictures folder for the screen saver. If you want to change this location, click the Settings button to open Photos Screen Saver Settings dialog.
Step 5: Click the Browse button, select a folder, and then click the Ok button. Click Apply. That’s it! Note that if there are subfolders under the selected folder, photos in sub-folders will be used for screen savers as well.
As you can see in the picture above, you can also see slide show speed of photos screen saver. There is even an option to shuffle images.
From now onwards, Windows 10 will use the photos saved in the selected folder for the picture screen saver.
You might also like to know how to set a screen saver as a desktop background in Windows.
Elaine N. Cortina says
Want to delete it. I get some photos I don’t like and they stay for too long. It is slowing down the opening of my desk top. Want to get rid of it.
Chanman says
Is there any way to make the slideshow of photos go even slower than the “slow” setting? to me, it is still fast. I would prefer that when My computer go into that mode, I’m not bombarded by a collage of images in the background, but rather that it stay for at least a few minutes at a time.
Sienna Bradshaw says
Hi, My screen saver settings doesn’t give the option for pictures. Only the generic bubbles, ribbons, etc.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.
Cindy Franks says
My photos screen saver keeps erroring out. How can I correct this?
Rachel says
I was hoping to get a slideshow of a variety of old photos, which I otherwise seldom look at, but every time the screen saver starts up, it goes through the same *exact* slideshow every time. It does this whether set on “shuffle” or not. If I switch folders, it similarly starts over with the same slideshow in the new folder every time the screensaver kicks in. I realize screen savers are obsolete as such, but since Windows still offers the feature, it’s a pretty annoying design flaw to be sure.
Travis says
How come the photos screensaver no longer has the option for the pictures to fade? That is so stupid
Tim says
For years I’ve had a particular folder as my photos slideshow screensaver, now, suddenly, it’s going though all my pictures, how do I change it back to just the folder I want to show?
Paula says
There are wide black borders at the top and bottom of the screensaver display. Is there anyway to remove these?
admin says
Shawna, you need to first import photos from iPhone to your Windows PC. Refer this link for directions: intowindows.com/3-ways-to-transfer-iphone-photos-to-windows-10-pc/
Shawna says
How do I access my photos to use for screensaver that are on my iphone and in the cloud?
Marcia Wahls says
I have my photos set as my screen saver in Windows 10, but to stop the screen saver and return to the desktop and log on screen I have to use CTRL, ALT, DEL. I never had to do this in Windows 7. I’m glad Windows brought the abiltiy to run photos as a screen saver slide show back, but is there something I can do to stop the screen saver just by moving or clicking the mouse?
Sandy says
How can I have the screensaver photos show as different tiles? Mine did that until the last update and now they only show as individual pictures.
John Loch says
With Windows 10, if one wants both auto-rotation of pictures (i.e. portrait or landscape) AND file name showing on the picture, you can’t do it, I’ve found. You can see file names with My Pictures Slideshow screensaver (not sure if Windows 10 has that but you can install that screensaver from older Windows version) OR you can always get the correct orientation of your picture with Photos screensaver but no option for file names. So, neither does both! Frustrating. Any ideas?
kel says
This is only good if you just have one folder where you save all your pictures in. But if you have pictures grouped in multiple folders, which I think is what’s commonly done, then this procedure does not make that possible. It’s a Windows 10 limitation that they have yet to find a workaround in their upgrade. Let me know if they’ve done it or if you know of another way. Thanks.
Vincent Cadora says
Thank you very much. I have been seeking help for several days on how to get this done. Your procedures worked well and I’m a happy camper. I have printed you instructions anyone can follow for the future.