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I'm working on a simple WPF-based screensaver and can't get the thumbnail preview to work.

When you open the display control panel and go to configure the screensaver, the selected screensaver is supposed to display a thumbnail preview within the dialog:

Display Properties - Screensaver

I've found several good examples online of how to do this, including:

Following these examples, I couldn't get anything to work - the preview thumbnail turns black, but nothing else appears. Downloading each of these (and a few others) and running them had the same result - a blank preview thumbnail. I've done this before on Windows 7 and it wasn't hard, so I was a bit frustrated.

Copying the binaries across to a Windows XP machine, I found that each of them showed a preview thumbnail successfully.

So, there's something that's changed between Windows 7 and Windows 8.

What do I need to do differently to enable my WPF screensaver to properly display a thumbnail preview on Windows 8?

MAHESWAR DILEEP
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Bevan
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  • http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-desktop/bubbles-screensaver-has-black-background/e0807324-5ca6-4abe-b6ba-716848b41ff5 – Vladimir Aug 29 '13 at 11:44
  • Thanks @VladimirFrolov, but that doesn't answer my question - in that thread the preview works fine, but behaviour of the actual saver is impaired. – Bevan Aug 31 '13 at 08:03
  • Hmm.. the screen saver previews work for me under Windows 8. I tried both the Raindrops one (from *Writing a Screen saver in WPF*), as well as the *CC Hearts Screen Saver*. Both showed the preview under Windows 8 RTM (32 and 64 bit versions); in both cases, the screen goes black for about 10 - 15 seconds, and then the preview gets displayed. The only thing that I had to do was install .Net 3.5 for the Raindrops screen saver. Perhaps it is a graphics driver issue? – chue x Nov 13 '13 at 00:07
  • It may be an issue with WPF's Direct3D acceleration (perhaps related to drivers as mentioned by @chuex) - have you tried forcing software rendering as per https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.media.renderoptions.processrendermode(v=vs.110).aspx ? – NextInLine Jan 17 '18 at 16:46

2 Answers2

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I've found the most common problems with moving code from Win 8 to Xp is permission and dependencies. Check that the files are not needing some weird permissions (not sure what permission the preview runs with) and that all dependencies are honoured (also their permissions).

If I remember right, all windows screen savers are just renamed exe files with command line arguments. Maybe try rename it and run it directly?

Mladen Mihajlovic
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Check what version of the framework you are using and try to use the client profile if possible

Also Try this small workaround if helps:

In Windows Explorer Go to > Options > Change folder and search options then click on the View tab and uncheck the box that says Always show icons, never thumbnails.

I hope it should work.

N.K
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    Sorry, I don't see how windows explorer icon previews have anything to do with screensaver previews in the display properties window. Please explain further. – Bevan Dec 04 '13 at 03:55