In Windows There are 3 basic steps for creating a screensaver. Get familiar with these 3 steps below, then actually do each step. If you don’t, I’ll come and get you! 😜

Step One: Create a Folder on Windows

As described below, please do this now, don’t just read this! Play nice and take action now! 😁

At the lower left on your computer screen, where it says “Type here to search,” enter the letter name of the disk you want to use, a colon, and then a backslash. For example to use disk F, you would enter ”F:\” (without quotes),

If you don’t know the letter name of the disk you want to use, type “This PC” (without quotes) and press Enter. You will see a list of all the available drives. If you have an external disk connected to your PC, like for example, “Easystore” and you want to use it, double click the name of that disk. Otherwise, double click another disk you want to use, like, say, “Local Disk (E:)”.

Next, right click in a blank area of the screen and hover your mouse over New and then click Folder. Next, start typing to give the folder a name, like, say, Power Habits or Screensaver. Press Enter when you are happy with the name. (Make a mental note of the pathname to that folder or copy the pathname into your Power Habits Journal.)

NOTE: a pathname is the complete path to a folder or file, for example here’s a possible pathname to a folder on Drive E:

Did you create that folder? If not, do it now, before reading on and before I get angry 😁.

Step Two: Move Photos to Screensaver Folder

Android Phone vs iPhone

The process is a little different depending whether you have an Android or iPhone. Please skip ahead to the appropriate section depending on which kind of smart phone you have.

Android Phone

If you are using an Android Phone, like a Samsung Galaxy you can set it to automatically upload your photos to Photos.Google.com. Then you can easily move your photos to the folder you created on your computer.

You can also connect your phone to a USB port on your computer and save it to your computer. The process is fairly simple, but if you need help, contact your smartphone provider.

Amazon Photos

If you have Amazon Prime, read on, otheriwse you may want to skip this section. With Amazon Prime, you can have all the photos you take automatically saved to Amazon Photos. To make this happen, install the Amazon Photos App on your smartphone. (NOTE: make sure you install the Amazon Photos App, and not some other Photos App.)

After logging into the Amazon Photos app, click the checkbox for Saving all your photos and make sure that upload using cellular data when WIFI is not available is NOT turned on -- so you don’t use excessive cellular data.

Be sure to click continue as needed until this option is active. You should see a report showing how many of your photos and videos have been uploaded.

An easy way to manage and see these photos is to:

Using iPhone for Windows Screensaver

Photos you take with your iPhone are automatically saved to iCloud.com. If you have Amazon Prime, you can use the method explained earlier. But if you want, you can use iCloud.com. Remember, here, we are talking about making a screensaver on a Windows computer. You can still do that even though you have an iPhone.

For help in finding your photos on iCloud you may want to call Apple Computer. You can reach them at: 800-275-2273. You may need to be transferred to a technician knowledgeable in iCloud.

An easy way to grab the photos in iCloud is to navigate to https://icloud.com and sign in (if necessary.) Then

Click the Photos icon. You might need to adjust the slider as shown to find the proper date range so you can see the desired photo.

If the photo is not there you may need to tell your iPhone to backup its photos.

Find a photo you want to use for your screensaver and press the Windows Key + Shift + S. (hold down all those keys at the same time). An app called Snip & Sketch will appear.

This app works slightly differently depending on what version of Windows you have. In Windows 10 you can select the area you want to snip. To select an area, click the upper left corner of the desired area and hold the mouse down. Then while holding the mouse down, move the mouse to the lower right corner and release the mouse button. A preview will appear in the lower right corner. Click the preview. You can then save it to your screensaver folder by clicking the disk icon or by pressing Ctrl+S. When saving the file, change the file type to .jpg.

Step Three: Create a Screensaver

Once you have created a folder for your screensaver and moved some photos into that folder, you are ready to configure (setup) the screensaver, On your computer, an easy way to start is to click the Windows Icon at lower left and type “screensaver” (without quotes) You may see “Best Match.” Or if you have previously set up a screensaver, you will see “Change Screensaver.”

Click either “Best Match” or “Change Screensaver” and a dialog will open where you can set up your screensaver.

Below the word screensaver you will see the type of screensaver you have. There will be a down arrowhead that looks like a “v.” Click that and then click “photos.”

Next, click settings. You will see: “Use pictures from.” If you have already set the folder that contains the screensaver you will see its name below “Use pictures from:”

(If you haven’t yet specified that folder you won’t see anything below Use pictures from.) So assuming you haven’t yet named a folder, click the button that says Browse and navigate to the folder containing your screensaver photos. Click that folder. Then click OK. You will then see the name of that folder below Use pictures from. Next set the Slide show speed. You can pick from Slow, Medium, or Fast. I recommend you click the Shuffle pictures checkbox so the pictures will appear in random order when the screensaver is active.