Now a screen saver by itself usually does not warrant a mention, but this screen saver is special for two interesting reason.
The good: MSN Screen Saver integrates news, picture album slideshows, videos and a lot of other interesting information that can be collected on the web. It shows up as the background and includes many other MSN services such as the unread messages, desktop or web search, access to email all without launching a separate application. Does this sound familiar? If not, do words “Active Desktop” come to mind? Yup, more than 7 years later one of the core technologies of Windows 98 is coming back as a screen saver. Talk about progress. The coolest part of the screen saver is that it downloads RSS content as well which makes it a very cool thing to run in the waiting room on a spare TV. If you can’t get cable in your office you’ll agree this is very important.
The bad: This screen saver is beta. Yes, beta as in broken. For the love of god, what does this say about Microsoft’s developer talent if they cannot even release a stable screen saver these days.
If you’re interested, please download it directly from Microsoft.
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