Custom Animated Screensaver - Best Method?

[cbeeching]

Hellooo,

 

Right I want to make a simple yet animated screensaver to have displaying on our computers when they're not in use. Thought I could get children's recent work, upcoming events, stuff like that flashing up. Now I think a simple looping powerpoint would do the trick, is there any easy way to get a PPT to be a screensaver? I know there's the method of exporting your PPT as individual pictures, and using the good old microsoft picture slideshow SS, but then you can't have transitions etc..

 

I've been digging and have found a few older threads on here. Some have suggested various applications that seem to fit the bill, however the common method seems to be convert your PPT to a flash file and then convert that to a screensaver using yet another application. But it seems that it's impossible to find an application that can convert a PPT into flash properly (transitions and all!). I've been using Showpoint in a similar fashion to display a constant PPT, but I don't think that would work effectively as a screensaver (i.e to stop as soon as someone moves the mouse, and also to play before logging in).

 

Any suggestions would be brill!

 

Thanks in advance.

[RTFM]

I was looking into converting an animated .gif that had been created in photoshop into a .scr .....

 

There didnt appear to be any simple ways of doing it.

[stevenwba]

PresentationPoint | MessagePoint free PowerPoint screensaver

 

beat me to it, theres a fair few like this all for free around, have done this in the past, good idea!

[cbeeching]

This seems to be exactly what i've been looking for!

 

Thanks

[sonofsanta]

Not that I know anything about this - never tried - but if all you want is a gallery is there a way of programatically setting the screensaver settings (GPO, script) that does the usual gallery screensaver, and just have it go through a network share folder?

 

May be a can of worms in that it turns out to be far more hassle than just creating a .scr, but once set up you could just drop in JPEGs and have them picked up automatically, rather than repackaging the .scr everytime.

[cbeeching]

Right... I'm probably just being dumb, but I'm having trouble configuring the messagepoint.scr

Basically, the RM management console (yes i'm on CC3 ) is obviously controlling the GPO that allows me to choose which screensaver I have. Although I have disabled everything to do with 'specifying the screensaver for user' I still can't select or configure screensavers through the traditional display options. Now presumably I can just use the messaepoint.scr as the default screensaver through the management console, however on doing this nothing happens, as I can't access the configuration settings to set which PPT file is to be used.

 

I've tried going directly to the Messagepoint.scr file within my system32 folder, however on clicking 'configure' it just brings up the demo PPT that comes with the install file, not the configuration settings!

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance!

[cbeeching]

Okay..

 

I've got messagepoint to run okay now, but only if a user is logged on. Now that kind've defeats the object of the screensaver, as I really wanted it to play a slideshow when nobody was using the computer. I have set the messagepoint.scr to run after a short idle time on the log on screen, however nothing ever comes. It works when I use a different screensaver file, and I think perhaps as messagepoint is really just a prompt to run a file in powerpoint maybe there lies the problem? Could it be possible that powerpoint can't function unless a user is logged on?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance.

[cbeeching]

Sorry to revive this topic back again, but i'm still wrestling with this screensaver thing.

 

Okay basically, i've got the screensaver working now, but it only works if I add these registry settings to EACH computer on the network manually:

 

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\PresentationPoint\MessagePoint]

"EndOnKeyboard"="True"

"EndOnMouse"="True"

"Language"="EN"

"LastProductInfo"="2"

"Presentation"="\\\\*ServerName*\\*Folder*\\*NameOfPowerpoint.pps*"

"Timestamp"="01/01/2000"

 

The main one being the 'Presentation"=" - which tells messagepoint which file to use as the screensaver. Now my school is on CC3, so I figured I could just add the reg file as a 'custom setting' through the management console, and the said registry setting would be added out across my workstations (tried it through my custom workstation type, and Global workstation properties).

 

However, the registry setting just doesn't get allocated. If I goto a random workstation, and manually click on the same registry fragment, add it in, then my screensaver works fine. But obviously I don't want to go round every single station doing this everytime I make a change to the settings of the screensaver, or EVER for that matter..

 

Tried contacting RM about it, and they told me I don't have support with them. Tried contacting my local support team, and they ended up asking RM, who then directed me to an article which just tells me how to add a custom screensaver - But it doesn't solve the problem, because the problem is I need to change the settings of the screensaver (which can only be done through the registry...!!!!)

 

So yeah, feel like i'm going round in circles here. Tempted to just give up, but where's the fun in that?

 

Forgive me as i'm still very much learning as I go along. Is there anyway to allocate out a registry setting to all computers on my network, without going through the RMMC?