[SOLVED] Is there any way to make Windows slideshow screensaver show filenames ?

[m0v1c]

Hello all. Hope all is well. I have been taking digital photographs since 2006 and have amassed roughly half a terabyte of photos. Mostly of the family and children. As our main computer has always been in a very visible place we have always run the windows screen saver as a slideshow of all our memories. Sometimes we will just all sit and watch for a while. In the days of Windows XP, only 2000 or so photos could be indexed and these would repeat until purged. With more recent OS's this is no longer an issue and photos feel truly random and cover all files in the selected folder.

The one thing I sorely miss is that the XP software displayed the file extension for each photo as they were displayed. This function was removed after XP. I do not know why. Ofttimes as we argue over when and where a photo was taken, the usefulness of this feature is reinforced and the desire to have it reintroduced burns greatly. Does anyone know if, in Win 11, there is a tweak or edit of even a trustworthy third party program that will ease my suffering by showing me the file path and name of the photo on the slideshow screensaver ?

TL;DR In Win 11, there is a tweak or edit of even a trustworthy third party program that will ease my suffering by showing me the file path and name of each photo on the slideshow screensaver ?

Many thanks

 

[Colif]

its not in base version - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ile-path/32d48b69-9521-483d-a331-ae80ab8674b4

You might need something like this to get it to show filename, i think it does it?
https://www.irfanview.com/64bit.htm

this one can show filenames on screen - https://johnsad.ventures/software/backgroundswitcher/

 

[m0v1c]

Thanks for your reply. The irfanview is a nice program. Unfortunately neither helps with my specific problem. I guess screensaver is less supported as compared to desktop background.
I really wish for a fix 🙁
As the only one who replied, you have ALL of my gratitude stock

 

[Colif]

Screensavers time in the sun was 20 years ago, I used to have a ton of them back then... now you lucky they even include the function since I doubt many people run them anymore.

i used to use this program, it can show titles, not sure about the path of image though.

Creating a desktop screensaver | ACDSee Photo Manager

Creating a desktop screensaver You can create a desktop screensaver using your own images. You can set the screensaver options to adjust how long each

acdsee.helpmax.net

no idea how much it is though.

 

[GarettMcDermid]

I used to use Google's photo management program Picasa as my screensaver app. It had the ability to display the comments on the photo or filename. To address one of the comments on this thread that screensavers were "so 20 years ago", my purpose wasn't to prevent burn in from damaging my monitor, it was to create a digital photo frame out of my computer monitors when they were not in use. Now it seems that concept is lost since Google doesn't support Picasa anymore and no one else seems to make a good screensaver/digital photo frame app that is integrated with a photo management program. The best thing about Picasa's screensaver feature is it had the option to display all starred photos, so when importing photos, you'd star the one's you'd want to show up in your screensaver... I'm debating firing up my old machine that still has picasa on it just to use it for it's photo management features.

Alternatively, google photos - basically the cloud based version of picasa - integrates nicely with the google ecosystem of smart displays and chromecasts, just not my desktop pc :-(

 

[m0v1c]

I used to use Google's photo management program Picasa as my screensaver app. It had the ability to display the comments on the photo or filename. To address one of the comments on this thread that screensavers were "so 20 years ago", my purpose wasn't to prevent burn in from damaging my monitor, it was to create a digital photo frame out of my computer monitors when they were not in use. Now it seems that concept is lost since Google doesn't support Picasa anymore and no one else seems to make a good screensaver/digital photo frame app that is integrated with a photo management program. The best thing about Picasa's screensaver feature is it had the option to display all starred photos, so when importing photos, you'd star the one's you'd want to show up in your screensaver... I'm debating firing up my old machine that still has picasa on it just to use it for it's photo management features.

Alternatively, google photos - basically the cloud based version of picasa - integrates nicely with the google ecosystem of smart displays and chromecasts, just not my desktop pc :-(

Nice to here from someone with similar thoughts on this issue. I remember Picasa well. Its a little baffling to me that the demand for a good slideshow is not stronger now then ever. Billions and Billions of photos are taken these days compared to the past yet
I have a gut feeling most go un-viewed for ever. My PC is in a central location and every day the family will reminisce about something looking at a photo that comes up on the screen. Just really wish I could know the file name.... Would make it easier to locate and send a photo or print one and so on.....

 

[Colif]

To address one of the comments on this thread that screensavers were "so 20 years ago", my purpose wasn't to prevent burn in from damaging my monitor, it was to create a digital photo frame out of my computer monitors when they were not in use.

My line wasn't an attack on anyone who wanted to use feature, more that attention given to the feature by developers all occurred 20 years ago, and support for features that most people don't use tends to get dropped over time. They are doing that to this day.
I used to have lots of them. On a work PC, 25 years ago... or more now.
There are valid reasons to use them if you want to.