3D Pipes Screensaver — the classic Windows pipes, free online_
Preset modes
Original settings, recreated
Keyboard
Guide — 3D Pipes online in 30 seconds
Classic Windows for the 1990s look, or Elbows, Chrome, Neon, Gold, Turbo or the Teapot hunt. Keys 1–7 switch.
Ball, curved Elbow, Mixed or Cycle, the same four options as the Windows original.
Number of pipes, speed, thickness, how often they turn, the size of the space and a slow camera spin. Glossy, chrome, gold, neon or matte.
Click the pipes, press Enter fullscreen or F. The screen stays awake, so it runs like a real screensaver on a monitor or TV.
With mixed joints a corner occasionally turns into the Utah teapot. The counter keeps score; Teapot hunt mode makes them more common.
Why this version looks right
Every pipe is a real 3D cylinder with lighting and depth, so pipes pass properly in front of and behind each other, and joints and elbows have the shiny highlights people remember.
- Grid
- pipes grow cell by cell and only turn at right angles
- No crossing
- a pipe never runs through another
- Restart
- when the space fills up, the screen fades and a new round starts from a new angle
- Surfaces
- chrome and gold reflections, neon, matte
- Camera
- slow orbit around the pipes
- Save
- PNG wallpaper and a shareable settings link
Windows 11, Windows 10, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, iPad, Android and smart TVs with a browser. Nothing to install and nothing to update.
The 3D Pipes screensaver, free in your browser
3D Pipes is the Windows screensaver in which glossy, colourful pipes grow through a black three-dimensional space, turning at right angles and joining with shiny ball joints or elbows, until the screen is full and everything starts again. For many people it is the screensaver of the 1990s: it ran on office and school computers for more than a decade. This page recreates the 3D Pipes screensaver online with real-time 3D graphics, so you can run it on any computer, tablet or TV without downloading anything.
Where 3D Pipes came from
The pipes first appeared in Windows NT 3.5 in 1994, as one of the OpenGL screensavers. In 2024 Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen told the story: the Windows OpenGL team had built 3D support into the system, but nothing in Windows showed it off. A screensaver was a safe way to do that, because if a graphics driver misbehaved, a screensaver could simply be switched off. The team held an internal contest that produced four screensavers: 3D Pipes, 3D Maze, 3D Flying Objects and 3D Text. The plan was to vote for one, but after someone from marketing saw them, all four went into the product.
Which Windows versions had 3D Pipes?
After Windows NT 3.5, 3D Pipes shipped with Windows NT 4.0, Windows 95 (from the OSR2 release onwards), Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Windows Vista dropped it along with most of the classic OpenGL screensavers, and it has not returned in Windows 7, 8, 10 or 11. That is why "3D Pipes screensaver for Windows 10" and "Windows 11 pipes screensaver" are such common searches: the screensaver people remember is simply not on new PCs any more.
The teapot Easter egg
The best-known secret of 3D Pipes is the Utah teapot. In Windows 95 (OSR2 and later), 98, ME, NT 4.0 and 2000, the screensaver would occasionally draw a teapot in place of a joint when it was set to multiple, traditional pipes with mixed joints and a solid surface. The Utah teapot is a famous 3D model made by Martin Newell at the University of Utah in 1975, and it became an in-joke among computer graphics programmers. This version keeps the joke: switch to mixed joints (or the Teapot hunt preset) and keep an eye on the corners.
The original settings
The settings dialog of the Windows original let you choose single or multiple pipes, a joint type (elbow, ball, mixed or cycle), a solid or textured surface and the speed. This version offers all four joint types, one to six pipes at a time and a speed slider, and adds pipe thickness, how often the pipes turn, the size of the space, a slowly orbiting camera and new surfaces: chrome, gold, neon and matte.
How to use 3D Pipes as your screensaver on Windows 10 and Windows 11
The quickest way: open this page on the screen you want, choose a preset and press F or Enter fullscreen. In fullscreen the page asks the browser to keep the display awake, so it keeps running like a screensaver; press Esc to get back. To start it automatically when the computer is idle, install a free "web page screensaver" app, such as Web Page Screensaver for Windows, and give it this address: https://jasperbernaers.com/3d-pipes-screensaver/. Some people copy the old sspipes.scr file from a Windows XP installation onto a new PC; that file is part of Windows XP and is not supported on current versions, so the browser version is the easier and safer route.
On a Mac, Chromebook or TV
macOS never had 3D Pipes. Open this page in Safari, Chrome or Firefox and use fullscreen; for a real macOS screensaver, a free app such as WebViewScreenSaver can show this web page when the Mac is idle. On a Chromebook, open the page and press fullscreen. On a smart TV, open the page in the TV's web browser, or cast or connect a laptop, for a retro ambient screen on a big display.
How the pipes are drawn
The space is a three-dimensional grid. Each pipe starts in a random free cell and grows one cell at a time, usually straight on, sometimes turning at a right angle, never into a cell that is already taken. When a pipe is boxed in it stops, and a new one starts elsewhere; when about half the space is full, the screen fades to black and a new round begins from a new viewing angle. The pipes are real 3D geometry drawn with WebGL: cylinders for straight runs, spheres for ball joints, quarter-torus pieces for elbows, all lit with specular highlights so they look like glossy plastic or polished metal.
Free, private and safe
There is no download, so there is nothing to scan for viruses: many "3D Pipes download" sites offer old .scr files or bundled installers, while this runs entirely inside your browser. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account, no ads and no watermark. Your settings are remembered in your browser, and Copy link shares them.
More classic screensavers
3D Pipes has company: the Windows 95 screensavers, the Windows 98 screensavers, the bouncing DVD logo, Mystify, the starfield and the Matrix digital rain. See them all on the screensavers page.