Windows 95 (released August 1995) shipped with a set of animated screensavers that were meant to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT monitors. They became iconic symbols of 1990s computing nostalgia.

One of the most beloved Win95 screensavers — a set of geometric polygons that bounce around the screen, shifting colours as they move. Originally called "Mystify" in Windows 3.1.

Simulates flying through space at warp speed. Stars rush toward you from a central vanishing point — a staple of every Windows 3.x and 9x installation from 1990 to 2001.

Coloured 3D pipes grow across the screen, randomly turning corners and occasionally spawning a ball joint. Introduced in Windows NT 3.5 and carried into Windows 95/98/XP.

The classic Windows logo tiles flutter and fly across a black screen. Simple, instantly recognisable, and the default screensaver on millions of PCs worldwide throughout the late 90s.

Scrolls customisable text across the screen. Office IT admins loved setting it to display phone numbers, IT helpdesk info, or passive-aggressive reminders to log off at end of day.

A first-person glide through an endless green-walled labyrinth, occasionally passing under exit signs that lead nowhere. Best known from the Windows 95 Plus! Pack's bundle of extra 3D screensavers, alongside 3D Flying Objects and 3D Text.

Flowing, colour-shifting curves drawn with Bezier math — the same curve technique behind vector fonts and design software. A calmer, more abstract cousin of Mystify's straight-edged polygons.

The odd one out: Windows 95 never shipped a falling-code screensaver — this cascading green text is a nod to The Matrix (1999), added because it fits the retro-terminal aesthetic so well.

August 24, 1995 — with midnight launch events, queues outside computer stores, and a marketing campaign built around The Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up," chosen because it was the first Windows to have a Start button.

It introduced the Start menu and taskbar, supported long file names instead of the old 8.3 format, and made Plug and Play a mainstream reality — all firsts for a consumer Windows release.

Yes — the Display Properties screensaver tab had a genuine "password protected" checkbox, turning these animations into an early, low-tech screen lock long before Windows had a dedicated lock-screen feature.

Not really for burn-in — modern LCD and OLED panels barely suffer from the phosphor burn-in that plagued 1990s CRT monitors. Today they survive purely as nostalgia, ambience for a second screen, or a fun kiosk/lobby display, which is exactly what this page is for.

Barely. Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP all shipped the same core screensaver set with minor tweaks — it wasn't until flat-panel monitors took over in the mid-2000s that Microsoft started treating screensavers as a legacy feature rather than a necessity.

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