Why this exists
Almost everything on this site used to be a program you installed. Screensavers shipped with the operating system; a monitor test meant downloading a utility; lighting your face for a video call meant buying a ring light. All of it is now a page of HTML and a canvas element, and none of it needs to touch your machine.
The sites that already did this were mostly fine and mostly annoying in the same few ways: the effect opened in a new tab, the settings reset when you left, dark mode broke after the first click, and the phone layout was an afterthought. The whole design brief here was to fix those, keep every screen on one page, and make a configured screen something you can bookmark.
How it works
Every screen runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type, pick or configure is sent anywhere — the colour you chose, the timer you set and the text on a fake update screen are computed on your own device and live in the page's address bar, which is why you can copy the URL and get the same screen back on another machine.
The site is static: pre-rendered HTML on a CDN, no server, no database, no accounts. That is also why it is free and why it stays fast on an old laptop or a cheap phone.
What is here
- Screensavers — The classics — DVD logo, pipes, flying toasters, matrix rain, starfield — plus algorithmic ones that were never screensavers to begin with.
- Colour screens — Every solid colour as a fullscreen page, including a custom screen that takes any hex code.
- Monitor tests — Dead pixel, backlight bleed, uniformity, ghosting, gamma, refresh rate and colour blindness tests.
- Pranks and fake screens — Fake update screens, blue screens of death, fake calls and loading screens. For jokes among people who will find it funny.
- Timers — Fullscreen countdowns, Pomodoro, intervals, a stopwatch and a world clock, large enough to read across a room.
- Lighting — Turn a spare monitor or tablet into a soft key light for a video call or a stream.
Who makes it
Browser Screensaver is built and maintained by one independent developer. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Microsoft, Apple, Google, Zoom, Valve, Sony, Canonical or any other company whose products appear in the fake-screen section. Those pages are parodies of well-known interfaces and nothing more.
Found a bug, want a screen that is not here, or spotted something wrong? The contact page is the fastest way to reach me.
How it is paid for
The site is free and intends to stay that way. Running costs are covered by advertising. There is no premium tier, nothing is held back behind a signup, and no feature is disabled until you pay. What data advertising involves is set out in the privacy policy.