Default Screen Savers in Windows 98

Microsoft Windows 98 arrived during the peak era of cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors, making screen savers essential tools to prevent phosphor burn-in as well as popular visual novelties. The operating system included a diverse collection of pre-installed screen savers ranging from simple 2D animations to hardware-taxing OpenGL 3D simulations. Below is a complete guide to every default screen saver included out of the box with Windows 98.

3D Flower Box

Using OpenGL rendering, this screen saver displayed a geometric cube that smoothly morphed into a sphere, an inverted shape, or complex nested geometric patterns. Users could customize the complexity, coloring, morphing speed, and surface patterns of the shapes.

3D Flying Objects

This OpenGL module displayed various three-dimensional models rotating and floating across a black void. Preset object styles included the classic Windows logo, an explorer ribbon, a textured sphere, a concentric cylinder, and a two-sided ring.

3D Maze

One of the most iconic screen savers in Windows history, 3D Maze generated a procedurally generated, first-person labyrinth. It navigated the maze automatically using a right-hand wall-following algorithm, featuring customizable wall, floor, and ceiling textures, as well as occasional floating geometric shapes and rats running across corridors.

3D Pipes

A beloved showcase of 98's 3D capabilities, 3D Pipes continuously generated an intricate, interconnected plumbing network across the screen. Users could configure pipe thickness, choose between multi-colored or metallic finishes, select traditional or tea-pot shaped joints, and alternate between single or multiple pipe streams.

3D Text

This visualizer floated fully rendered 3D text across the display. Users could set it to display customizable strings, show the current system time, or generate random text, with extensive options for rotational speed, fonts, specular reflection, and surface textures.

Blank Screen

Designed for pure functionality and power saving, this utility simply rendered the monitor completely black, cutting down on visual distractions and protecting CRT tubes without consuming processor or graphics resources.

Channel Screen Saver

Unique to the Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4 era, this component integrated with the Active Desktop feature. It displayed a dynamic slideshow of headlines, weather, and updates streamed via web broadcast channels subscribed to by the user.

Flying Windows

A hallmark carryover from Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, Flying Windows simulated the multi-colored Windows logo drifting and scaling through space in a continuous cascade against a pitch-black background.

Marquee

A simple 2D text scroller that moved user-defined text horizontally across the screen. Settings allowed users to adjust the font face, font size, background color, text speed, and screen positioning.

Mystify

A classic geometric visualizer that drew undulating, colorful multi-segment lines and polygons across the screen. The lines continuously warped and bounced off the edges of the display, creating kaleidoscopic vector patterns.

Starfield Simulation

A simulation of traveling through deep space at high speed. It produced a dense field of white pixels (stars) that spawned in the center of the display and expanded outwards toward the viewer, with adjustable star counts and velocity settings.