14 DAY TRIAL // Long, long ago screensavers served for better protection of the monitor while the computer was idle. Now they are merely used so that your desktop would "say" something while you are away. For the more romantic of us, a screensaver that would convey our state of mind at a given time would be perfect, and, as such, some of them might like either a broken heart theme or a happy one.
This is where Just Broken Heart comes into play, and it can be downloaded and used for as long as you want because it is free. The application has some special requirements that your computer must meet, such as an Intel Pentium 500 MHz+ processor, at least 65 Mb RAM and 250 Mb free space on your drive. This configuration is met very often so there should be no problem, but for those who have older computers this could be a problem.
The main configuration dialog for Just Broken Heart can be brought up by starting your screensaver settings. You just right click anywhere on your desktop and choose Personalize (if you are using Vista) or Properties (if you are a Windows XP user), then click on the Screen Saver option. Choose Just Broken Heart, and click Settings for customization.
The General tab of the Settings window will enable you to select the image duration option, meaning for how long one image is displayed on your desktop. You can also choose the item order and here you have 3 options: sequential, random or shuffle. Another interesting feature is the “Start image painting on desktop,” which means that when your application starts it gradually covers your desktop.
You can change the position of the image from a rather large range of options. You can resize it to fit the screen – here you can set the resizing to only take place if the image is too large to fit the screen, or stretch it if it is too small. You can also choose to do nothing, meaning that the image will not be altered in any way. If the “Resize only if too big to fit screen” or “Do not change size” options are selected, the item position feature activates, allowing you to select a center or a random position for the images that make up Just Broken Heart.
The Effects tab offers you the opportunity to customize the software to a higher level. You can choose to slide from any side you want, including diagonally, and you can select a door close or open effect, a close from corners one, or even an iris close. Another interesting effect that you can add is the sliding jaws one, vertically or horizontally. The image can also unfold in front of you from the right, left, up or down, to your liking. Just Broken Heart also has a lines effect, and these can be vertical in any direction, horizontal in any direction and even cross lines. Furthermore, you can go for a line drop effect, from the right, left, down or up, or a box out, box in, ellipse out, ellipse in one.
The program really gives you a nice and satisfying list of features to choose from so that your screensaver would be more than just an empty slideshow of depressing photos. After all, even if you are brokenhearted and you want to tell that to the world through your screensaver it doesn’t mean that it has to be dull. The best way to transmit something is to animate it so that it draws attention. The effects that Just Broken Heart offers make that job easier for you.
Another option that you can adjust in the Effects tab is the speed of the images when they make their entrance. You can choose a smother way or a faster one, depending on your state of mind mostly.
Just Broken Heart gives you the possibility to add music to it, by using the Sound tab in the Settings window. Here, you can choose to mute the sounds if you desire a silent tribute to your broken heart or use your own playlist, which can be repeated or shuffled via the options that Just Broken Heart gives you. You can even have it select and play just one playlist item.
The Behavior tab is very important for those who want to customize the way their screensaver reacts to the mouse and keyboard actions, and you can pick out your program’s exit condition from quite a long list. As such, you can choose for the application to exit at the mouse move, or mouse click, the press of a keyboard button or even only the press of the ESC button. It doesn’t have a lock computer feature thought. Once the exit conditions are met your computer will return to the state it was when you left it.
All in all, this application is perfect for the romantic ones who still want to send a message through their desktop when they’re not there, with a more than satisfactory level of customization. The effects that can be added create more than a dull slideshow of depressing images.
The Good
The Bad
The Truth
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
