Default Windows XP Screensavers

When Microsoft released Windows XP in October 2001, the operating system included a selection of built-in screensavers designed to prevent CRT monitor burn-in while showcasing the system's graphical capabilities. The collection consisted of brand-new additions tailored to the Windows XP visual identity, alongside legacy 2D and OpenGL-based 3D screensavers carried over from Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows ME.

The initial retail release of Windows XP included the following screensavers natively:

  • Windows XP: The default screensaver for the operating system. It displayed the updated, full-color Windows XP logo bouncing or drifting across a solid black screen.
  • My Pictures Slideshow: A new feature for Windows XP that allowed users to cycle through image files stored in their "My Pictures" folder. It offered customizable transition effects, display frequencies, and folder targeting.
  • 3D FlowerBox: An OpenGL screensaver that rendered an animated, morphing 3D geometric shape resembling a box blooming into various petal-like and polyhedral patterns.
  • 3D Flying Objects: A customizable OpenGL screensaver that rendered various 3D objects—such as textured spheres, cubes, flags, or Windows logos—tumbling across the screen.
  • 3D Pipes: A popular OpenGL screensaver that created an interconnected, colorful maze of three-dimensional plumbing pipes that grew across the screen in real time.
  • 3D Text: An OpenGL animation that displayed rotating, bouncing, or floating 3D text. Users could display the local system time or enter custom text.
  • Beziers: A mathematical 2D screensaver that generated colorful, morphing curved lines based on Bezier polynomial calculations.
  • Blank: A minimal utility that simply turned the display completely black to reduce power consumption and protect the screen without processing animation.
  • Marquee: A simple 2D text screensaver inherited from earlier versions of Windows that scrolled customizable plain text across the display.
  • Mystify: A classic screensaver featuring shifting, overlapping geometric polygons with color-cycling outlines.
  • Starfield: A retro simulation of space travel that displayed white pixels rushing toward the user to mimic traveling through a warp-speed starfield.