MSN Rainy Day Screensaver No Sound?

WinXP sp3 32bit No sound on this screensaver have the latest flash player 32 installed. all my other savers have sound any help? thanks

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• MSN Rainy Day screensaver

Allen5 years ago

10 replies

• Hello Allen,

  Thanks for reporting that. I just tested it myself and can confirm that this repackaged version of the screensaver does not give any sound on Windows XP.

  I have a few options for you. You can download the original screensaver, as it was originally distributed by MSN, here. It did not work for me on Windows XP, but it could still work on your computer. Make sure you uncheck the box in front of "Set MSN and Bing as my default home pages" before you click "Next" in the installation program.

  If that installer gives you an error, you could manually install the screensaver file, which you can download here. If you need help installing it this way, see our help center article on the topic: How to install a screensaver from a ZIP file.

  I now have the screensaver working with sound on XP. Hope it works for you, too!

  Rob (Screensavers Planet)5 years ago

• Yes, It Works!
  At first, thought maybe a codec issue with my system but after installing a good free codec and lots of audio troubleshooting still had no sound. Then I noticed you posted a reply. so downloaded both options, the original "ms install" and "zip scr file" tested both options and both works great with sound. very relaxing and nostalgic.

  Any chance, you have the original Microsoft "Space.scr" and/or Theme? I remember it was native on win98/winME. not sure but maybe works on xp
  Thank you for your time and consideration.

  Allen5 years ago

• Hello Allen,

  Glad you got it working!

  I also found the Space screensaver for you. It's not on the site because previously I could only find a 16-bit version, which wouldn't work on modern 64-bit operating systems, but it looks like Windows ME shipped with a newer 32-bit version of the screensaver, which is now also working on Windows 10 64-bit.

  I'm still figuring out how to add it (and others from Windows ME) to the site, as there are a few oddities, but in the meantime you can download it here.

  The .dll files included in the ZIP file are a few dependencies that the screensaver would not run without. These will need to be placed in the same directory where you put the Space screensaver file. You can put them all in your Windows or Windows\system32 folder, so long as you don't overwrite any existing files.

  Just so you know, once you've installed it, it's not listed in the Screen Saver Settings panel as "Space" but as "Wildlife 32". Haven't quite figured out why yet.

  Anyway, I hope it works for you, too!

  Rob (Screensavers Planet)5 years ago

• Wow, that fantastic thank you!
  I'm also curious as to why it's list as Wildlife 32. So I opened up the .dll files and the .scr with program editor and found it's from Microsoft plus! for kids screensaver. the .scr and .dll files all show it was made and copyright by Wildlife Socha computing inc. and Original file name "WL32SCR.SCR" and internal name as "wl32scr". So I thought lets go hunting today!

  below is what I found and changed-
  on the very fist string table of the space.scr file it show "Wildlife 32" so I changed it to "Space" and left everything else alone in the rest of the string tables, as to not corrupt the integrity of the file structure in any way. then ran space.scr to see if I got it right....

  Now under "System Properties/Screensaver" it show Space as the SCR file not "Wildlife 32" so that was a simple fix.

  At first I suspected it was registry entry and that still might be true as we didn't use Microsoft install disc. we just copy paste everything to system32 directory. So, if had we used the traditional Microsoft install disc, would that disc install the saver as Space or Wildlife 32. ( don't know, don't have the install disc)

  Although, this was an easy fix for you and I to use for "personal use". however, not knowing copyright laws I would be some what reluctant of making name change alterations and posting for public downloads.

  I would like to know how did you know the correct associated .dll file to include with the space.scr file? I would not have figured that out, I mean how would you know the correct .dll names to look for among so many .dll files.

  if you would like a copy of my edited space.scr or screen shots of what I did let me know. By the way, I had a lot of fun figuring it out also love your website.
  I spend a lot of time here downloading savers and testing them.

  what I would like to do, is learn how to change the msn rainy day saver audio to a better sounding rain storm or add music ability function to the saver with rain audio as an option. I do have a way of removing the msn logo at bottom of screen as it uses one static jpg named "IMAGE_103.jpg" as main frame image. very simple to edit with any image editor :-)

  Allen5 years ago

• That's great! Thanks for looking into that.

  I pulled the Space screensaver, as well as a bunch of others and the required DLLs, from a copy of Windows ME made available through Archive.org. I have it running in a virtual machine (VirtualBox), sure brings back a few memories!

  On Windows ME, all the screensavers, including Space, are listed with the proper name, so I'm not sure where it's actually drawing that information from. I can't find any related registry entries, so that one remains a mystery for now.

  I've repeated your trick, though, editing the string table to replace "Wildlife 32" with "Space", and that seems to have worked (after trying a few editors).

  There are about 600 DLLs in the System folder of the Windows ME installation. Because I had a feeling only a few of those would be necessary to run the screensaver, I copied them all to my Windows 10 machine and started deleting DLLs in batches of 50 or so, testing the screensaver after each removal. When the screensaver stopped working, I could start to narrow it down, and this way I eventually wound up with the DLLs included in the ZIP file linked above. 15 minutes well spent, I'd say ;-)

  I think these were originally 16-bit screensavers but for Windows ME they were converted to 32-bit files. The DLLs may be required to make that work.

  The MSN screensavers are all based on Shockwave Flash (SWF) files that you can extract using software like the JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler, or sometimes even simply by using an archiving tool like 7-ZIP. Once you have the SWF file, you can manipulate it, but it seems you've already figured all that out. Not sure if you can use the SWF to actually add any features to it, though.

  It think it would be great if the Plus! collection of screensavers would be available for users of modern versions of Windows, so I'm going to be looking into that.

  Thanks for your help! I wouldn't have thought to edit the string table myself.

  Rob (Screensavers Planet)5 years ago

• A lot of google search results will give all kinds of lame ways to check via a windows environment such as-

  Under the "Processes tab", the "Options menu", select the box next to Show 16-Bit Tasks. All 16-bit tasks should be indented under Ntvdm.exe along with Wowexec.exe. bla, bla, and so on!
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Any DOS user will agree, do it like this-

  Create a "temp" directory on C:\ then (COPY) all files SCR or EXE files to that directory.

  Then get a copy of Microsoft filever.exe which is a dos utility. this can be found on any winxp install disc or downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18546

  or found at any old dos program site.

  this is a 8 bit dos utility that was included with winxp sp2 pack. however,
  before installing the sp2 tool pack check to see if your system already has it installed?

  Or check to see if your system has the filever/exe utility located in-

  C:\Program Files\Support Tools
  or
  c:\windows\system32
  or
  c:\windows
  or
  c:\anywhere?

  Alternatively, you can copy the filever.exe utility to windows root or c:\program files. you can either drop to full DOS or open a ms dos box "run" "CMD"

  While in DOS navigate to the "temp" directory where you placed all the copy files that you want to check.

  Note:
  depending on your system you may have a default dos directory that the dos opens to rather than c:\ if this is a the case. here's a quick dos switch to get to C:\
  type- "cd .." ( no quotes), you might have to type "cd .." ( change directory) a few times to get to the C:\ prompt.

  once at c:\ type "cd temp" (no quotes)

  now, you should be in "c:\temp" directory then type filever.exe this will run filever.exe and you should see a list of switches that filever.exe will recolonize.
  such as below-

  /s displays all file in directory
  /v list verbose version information ( this will say if file is 16 or 32 bit)
  /e list executable only
  /x displays short names generated for non-8dot3 file names
  /b use bare format (no directory listing)
  /a don't display file attributes
  / d don't display file date and time

  while in "temp" directory type "filever.exe" again this time followed by one of the switch or commands from the filever.exe command or switch list like below-

  filever.exe /v
  (this will display lots of file info on all the files you placed in that directory)

  this will not alter the files only read the files information thus within the
  displayed information you should find the files bit version such as 16 or 32 bit.

  Seriously,
  this is really the proper method to read legacy software data.
  most of the tech blogs found via a google search are completely lame.

  once you do this a few times you'll be much happier knowing that it's fact not guess work. also reading program strings will tell you lot about the software.

  Allen5 years ago

• I never worked with creating or editing screensavers. I'm not familiar with the programs that you mentioned or what tools I would need to work with savers.

  I exacted the msn rainy day audio midi and wav folders but the folders are empty.
  do you know if this saver uses the windows synth to create the rain sound rather than actual media files such as .mid, .wav, .mp3, etc.. ?

  Allen5 years ago

• found the two sound files running JPEXS and replaced the rain sound with a test mp3 track then removed the explosion sound but don't see where to save as .scr? I do see how to save as exe or swf but not scr file.
  any help would be most appreciated :)

  Allen5 years ago

• Technically a screensaver is, for the most part, just an EXE file that accepts some optional parameters and has its extension renamed to .SCR, but if you export the SWF as an EXE then it will run but it won't be displayed full-screen. You'll need a program that can convert the SWF (or embed it) into a fully functional Windows screensaver.

  Have a look at the screensaver makers page for an overview of such programs. Both free programs in the list (InstantStorm and WG-ScreenSaver Creator) are capable of turning SWF files into screensavers, so I'd suggest trying those first.

  Rob (Screensavers Planet)5 years ago

• thank you, will defiantly take a look :)

  Allen5 years ago

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