Vista "Photos" screen saver causes repeated errors

[Theatre Prof]

When I use the "Photos" screen saver provided with Vista, it stops working
after a few minutes of activity and a "Problem reports and solutions" box
appears with information about using regsvr32 to unregister lmpgspl.ax.
However, the technical information page linked to the "problem reports" box
clearly indicates that regsvr32 does not work with Windows Vista.
In conjunction with this, Rundll32 frequently stops working as well, leading
to annoying, multiple error messages. Rundll32 errors also occur at other
times, when the screensaver is not running.
If there is a solution that works with Vista, I would certainly appreciate
hearing about it. If no solution is presently available, I'd like to know
how to keep these annoying errors from piling up.

[NordicWolf]

I had the exact same problem and my problem was that the picture folder
contained avi files. Once I moved them to another directory the screen saver
worked fine. Specifically M-JPEG avi files (made by many cameras eg canon)
seems to crash the screen saver.
Hope that helps

[Theatre Prof]

Thanks, NordicWolf: your suggestion did the trick. And Vista's "search"
function made finding and moving AVI files easy.
Wouldn's it be nice if Microsoft provided information like this to its
customers?

[CT]

I can't thank yo enough. "Photo screen saver error" on my new VISTA was
driving me nuts. I had tried everything. I moved the AVI out after reading
your post and the error went awat for the first time ever. Thanks a million

[stanislavf]

Well, what is annoying is that this DID work before and only recently seems
to be broken. One suspects it is due to an update/installation of other
video software. I have the exact same problem, but it worked with the AVI
files two weeks before (I have had Vista installed for some time).

It was actually kind of fun in the screen saver to have some of the one
minute video clips come up ... now I cannot do that.

If anyone finds out the REAL solution, to allow video files, please post it.

[rod]

Here it is October 2007. I have installed all Windows updates and I have the
same problem. I searched MIcrosoft's web site - knowledge base etc and there
was not even an acknowledgement of the problem let alone a fix. Nice idea to
play videos as part of the screen saver but MS should at least make playing
videos an option if they can't fix the problem outright.

This is simply not a feature of the software - you just have to accept that.

[tanemera]

I cured this problem on my brand new HP PC Pavilion desktop by only loading photos having a file size of a few hundred KB in jpeg format. If I include photos from my new camera it won't run. My new camera produces files that are up to 5 MB. Strangely, my other (notebook) PC, also running Vista Basic, has no problem running all my photos on screen saver and simply ignores files that are not in jpeg format, for example, .mov files. Some of these Vista problems defy explanation!

[myusername]

HERE'S THE ANSWER!!
FORGET Windows photo screensaver!

Google offers a great FREE photo screensaver through Picassa, their photo organizing program.

After downloading Picassa, go to "Tools" and then "Configure screen saver."

The Google logo (the word Google) is the always the first "photo" that shows up, but to be honest, they deserve the 9 seconds of credit and then it will go to your designated photo folder.

I love using my photos for as a screensaver, and so, since Microsoft AS USUAL doesn't offer any good help, this is a great alternative!