Screensaver Idea

[SuperOwnJK]

For weeks I have been looking for a nice screensaver that brightness up the room whilst my computer is idle, and after hours of searching around I have found something that suits me perfectly!

The screensaver is made using a few different programs, but is simple to setup:

DisplayFusion (http://www.displayfusion.com/)

IFTTT (https://ifttt.com/dashboard)

Google Picasa (Specifically the screensaver it adds to Windows) (https://support.google.com/picasa/answer/19542?hl=en-GB)

Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/home)

Electric Sheep (http://electricsheep.org/)

 

Step 1

Once signed up to IFTTT activate this recipe (https://ifttt.com/recipes/14475) to your account. Create the folder Photos/Instagram Likes to your Dropbox Account

 

Step 2

Get liking! Once you have liked a photo on Instagram, it will be automatically downloaded to your Dropbox Account. If you have Dropbox installed on your computer it will be downloaded to your local disk. 

 

Step 3

Install Electric Sheep and DisplayFusion to your computer. You can mess around in DisplayFusion to change your desktop wallpaper etc beforehand if you like. 

 

Step 4

On DisplayFusiuon, go to Settings->Screen Saver. Select monitor 1 and from the screensaver dropdown menu select 'Unknown' with the Electric Sheep Icon next to it. Select settings if you want to change the default setup of ElectricSheep. Select monitor 2 and from the dropdown menu select Google photos Screensaver. Select settings and change the photos folder to your Dropbox/Photos/Instagram Likes. You can also change the Visual Effect; I chose Collage and 3 Seconds as this looks good to me. You can obviously chose any effect you like. 

 

Step 5

Preview! If all went well you should be presented with a different screensaver on each monitor, one being hypnotic movements and the other being a moving collage of photos you've liked on Instagram!

And best of all, it maintains itself. All you have to do is continue liking photos on Instagram and they will be added to your screensaver pool of photos.

 

This is an example of what my screensaver looks like. They are different sizes as secondary display as a lower resolution of 1600x900.

 

 

 

[bradscoolio]

If only instagram didn't punch me right in the manliness. Awesome idea and guide, it'd apply to me if it worked with Facebook photo likes :P

[SuperOwnJK]

If only instagram didn't punch me right in the manliness. Awesome idea and guide, it'd apply to me if it worked with Facebook photo likes :P

Actually you can get IFTTT to download photos you are tagged in on Facebook to a Dropbox Folder. I know its not the same as your after but it integrates Facebook rather than Instagram. Here is the recipe https://ifttt.com/recipes/1760

[Mattie432]

Nice tutorial, may give it a go.

[SuperOwnJK]

Nice tutorial, may give it a go.

No way, Mattie! I've been subbed to you on YouTube for years now. When it was Mattie432 and not Twijoo. In fact I think I heard of DisplayFusion from one your videos originally. 

[boggle4321]

this is a great idea, il do it on my laptop right now!

[Roberto]

WIll give it a go already use diplay fusion all the time

[SuperOwnJK]

Just hit 250 Instagram liked photos for my screensaver, still going strong.