Windows Fader

I work for Microsoft now

David Vidmar — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:00:27 GMT

It’s been quiet around here and for a good reason. As I hinted before there has been many changes in my life recently. In same week I became father for second time (father of three boys now, twins and a new baby!), finally finished my engineer’s degree and finally, I joined the ranks of best company in the world to work for – Microsoft.

I’ll be working as I consultant for Biztalk Server and Forefront Identity Manager and from time to time a Dynamics CRM consultant.

So, what can you expect? Occasional dry stints, lots of BTS and FIM links, Windows Phone 7, Azure and Windows 8 and other cool Microsoft stuff.

If you are fellow Microsoftie, please look me up and drop me a note – let’s connect!

Site troubles

David Vidmar — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 06:50:31 GMT

This site has been experiencing technical difficulties in last couple of days. As far as I can see, it’s been some hackers playground. Things are returning to normal.

Thank you all for your patience.

Windows Fader 2.0.1.0 released

David Vidmar — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:27:15 GMT

I just uploaded a minor bug-fix version of Windows Fader screensaver. Feel free to update or try it if you are a new user!

Donations welcome!

Windows Fader Screensaver v1.0

David Vidmar — Sun, 13 May 2007 11:48:11 GMT

I liked the idea of fadeaway screen screensaver so much, I took my shot at it. It works exactly as Power Dimmer except two details:

when screen saver is interupted, there is nice little fade in, the screen doesn't just reapper,
settings are saved in personal folder, so there are no issues with Windows Vista.

I run it with these settings:

set Windows to start screensaver after 3 minutes,
set Windows Fader to fade your screen in 5 minutes to 90% black.

If you lock your computer with screensaver, you will probably want to extend time before Windows runs screensaver so you will not go crazy logging in.

A note: this screensaver will not save any energy. This just puts transparent black window over the screen. If you want to save energy, set up Windows to turn the screen off.

Download:

Windows Fader Screensaver (14 kB)
Windows Fader Screensaver C# source code (21 kB)

Price and licence:

free,
no spyware,
licended under BSD open source licence

Requirements:

Windows 2000, XP, Vista
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

Installation:

Unzip "WindowsFaderScreensaver.zip" to any folder,
Copy "WindowsFader.scr" file to your "system32" folder (usually c:\windows\system32),
Go to screen saver settings and choose "Windows Fader",
[optional] Click "Configure" and customize.