One of the options available on the Screen Saver tab of Windows XP’s Display Control Panel is the My Pictures Slideshow.
It’s a great alternative to the bouncing Windows logo. Select this screen saver and click the Settings button to specify which pictures you want to use (hint: it helps to copy your favorite pictures into their own folder and use just that location), how often you want the images to change, how big the pictures should be, and so on.
Ed Bott 
I’ve read that one of the problems with the JPEG picture format is that every time the picture is opened and closed, the image quality is degraded ever so slightly. Is this really true and would using this screen saver cause the image to degrade?
I’ve been using this screen saver for years on 3 different computers that run 12 hours a day pointing to the same folder in my main pc. I have not noticed the pictures getting worse.
Any thoughts?
Every time a JPEG picture is opened for editing and then re-saved, it gets compressed again. So repeatedly editing a JPEG file can cause problems. But simply opening, viewing, and closing an image file doesn’t change a thing.
Why use a screensaver at all? Doesen’t using a screensaver at least potentially cause other problems? And with modern benefits, the only benefit is eye candy.
Oops…that should be “modern monitors.”
The old function of screen saver to prevent burn-in no longer applies, but there a screen saver is a valuable privacy aid. At a minimum, it covers up anything you’re working on when you staep away from your desk for an extended period of time. And if you use the password-protect option, it prevents someone from logging on to your PC while you’re away at lunch.
It’s also entertaining. If I’m doing stuff in my office that doesn’t involve the keyboard (reading, straightening up, etc.) it’s enjoyable to have interesting visuals.
Everything you said makes sense. But don’t screensavers sometimes lead to other problems? Then again, I rarely do anything on my computer that a running screensaver would actually interfere with.
“Official” Windows screen savers don’t cause many (any) problems, in my experience. Third-party screen savers that are poorly written are another issue completely!
I have Windows XP Media Edition 2002, and the customized screensaver does not display in a full screen “slide show” style. The pictures are reduced with a black border around them. How do I fix this problem? There is nothing on settings to give me the option to display the pictures in full screen (the largest display option is 1280 x 1024 in 32 bit color). Is there something I am missing? When viewed as a slide show, these same pictures show up in full screen with good resolution! How do I fix this?