3D Earth Screensaver is more than just a standard screensaver with some nice space imagery.

This screensaver makes you feel like you're flying through space. It presents you with an animated image of our planet as it floats in outer space, including also the Sun, the Moon and even the ISS orbiting around. Images are really beautiful: you can see reflections from sun beams on the surface of Earth, and also the city lights that begin to appear as darkness covers the planet.

3D Earth Screensaver includes two viewing modes: the demo mode, which simply acts as a screensaver and displays images, and the interactive mode, which enables you to actually interact with the screensaver. You can move from one point to another, zoom in or zoom out and learn more about our planet thanks to the screensaver's layers that include time zones, flags, borders and other details. Just one thing: don't expect to reach street level. This is not Google Earth.

On the downside, I didn't like having icons and text boxes displayed on the image in demo mode. I would have preferred to just have the gorgeous image of our blueish home: Earth.

It may not be as accurate as Google Earth, but 3D Earth Screensaver delivers beautiful images of our planet while you're away from your computer.

Download 3D Earth Screensaver 1.0 in Softonic

Volunteer or grid computing are two ways to share computer resources with others in order to help work on a bigger project. These often have to do with research, on topics like medicine or the environment.

BOINC is an open source application with which you can connect to a number of projects and share your computer's resources. At startup the application will display a list of all the projects you can participate in. Select one or simply type in the url if it isn't included.

Afterwards, I'd suggest looking into the preferences to set BOINC to use your computer only when it is idle, such as overnight. Don't forget to leave it connected to the Internet though.

There's three different views to choose from, with the advanced one divided in tabs. This will give you all the statistics on projects, messages, transfers and disk usage information. The best view is probably the graphical one, which shows the frequency live in a multicolored wave form and data in a bar graph.

Overall, BOINC is easy to use, even if you don't have particular knowledge on volunteer computing. The only thing to watch is that the application doesn't use up too much of your resources, or to only launch it when it's inactive.

A nice way of sharing your computer's resources for the greater good, BOINC is easy to set up and provide lots of useful statistics.

Download BOINC 5.10.45 in Softonic

I've been fascinated by the Universe ever since I had those glow in the dark stars in my bedroom as a young boy. Thanks to the braniacs at NASA there are some really stunning pictures of space around these days and this screensaver showcases some of the best of them.

Astronomy Screensaver features incredible high resolution shots of complete galaxies, the surfaces of planets, and spectacular exploding supernovas. It's a shame that the developer ommited to include any information on what each picture actually shows, because they really are quite fascinating.

Download Astronomy Screensaver 2005 1.0 in Softonic

This stellar screensaver will unveil all the treasures of heaven. Graceful and fascinating constellations and marvelous nebulas will lace your desktop with fabulous starry design of the unknown master.

Distant stars will light up your way to the captivating depths of space. Plunge into this mysterious world of the wonders of the universe and enjoy the unrivalled beauty of this fantastic visual feast!

Download Free Star Screensaver 1.0 in Softonic

Sometimes there's nothing more serene at your desktop than watching the world go by - quite literally. Cities of Earth is a majestic free 3D screensaver which shows the most important cities of our planet as viewed from the space. The cities are located according to their actual global coordinates, so the screensaver is also good as an educational tool.

When you run the screensaver, the sunlit part of the Earth is set according to its real time position (calculated from a local time and time zone on your PC). Day gives way to night (and vice versa) very slowly, but if the screensaver is running for a few hours you can witness this. You can also use your mouse wheel to move the camera closer and further away.

The developers say that Cities of Earth saves CPU time for background tasks to run without affecting the rest of your system although we found it was rather heavy on resources.

Download Cities of Earth Free 3D Screensaver 1.0 in Softonic

This Screen Saver displays a realistic model of the Moon with a background of twinkling stars.
The moon phase corresponds to real time and the screen saver also displays the oordinates of your location, the current time and date and the rising/setting times of the Sun and Moon.

It also calculates the duration of a solar day and lunar days. Take your PC to the Moon and back with Actual Moon 3D.

Download Actual Moon 3D 1.5 in Softonic

Download this 3D screensaver and turn you screen into a teleport gateway to the mysterious galaxy of star wars. You will definitely appreciate the outstanding graphics and the enchanting space scenery with fascinating special effects.

Download Star Wars 3D Screensaver in Softonic

This Screen Saver displays realistic model of the Earth on a background of twinkling stars.
In addition, it displays text information about your exact cooridnates in the world, the current time and date, times of Moon rise and sunsets, duration of the solar day and the current lunar day.

Download Actual Earth 3D 1.1 in Softonic

Anyone with even a passing interest in the mysteries of the universe will love this screensaver, which gives you several different views of space. The screensaver displays random images from a collection of over 100 astronomical photographs. There are several options you can tweak, including the amount of time the image is displayed, as well as transition effects.

Download Amedia Astro Screensaver 2.1 in Softonic

A unique, stunning, fully-featured 3D Windows screensaver by 3D Wonders. It features a beautifully rendered 3D world slowly spinning against a backdrop of nebulae and stars, with the Sun and Moon correctly positioned in relation to the Earth. Additional visual effects including clouds, atmosphere, and lens flares are available as options.

World Saver 3D can also play your favorite music whenever it is running. You can mark the location of hundreds of major cities around the world and show their names if you desire. Add your own cities and locations. Set a geostationary viewpoint above any city. Accelerate time and see the Sun and Moon zoom around Earth in moments. But World Saver 3D is more than this. It also allows you to tell at a glance the approximate time at any location on the globe!

Download World Saver 3.4 in Softonic

Trying to predict climate change is hard. There are lots of factors involved – air temperature, sea temperature and cloud cover all play a part – as do dozens of other variables. Therefore, there are a huge number of calculations involved.

One solution is for scientists to use the largest supercomputer they can find. But even the biggest supercomputers are only so good. You can do better. Using a technique known as distributed computing, we’re hoping to harness the power of thousands of PCs around the world. If 10,000 people sign up, we’ll be faster than the world’s biggest computer. And we’re hoping to be even better than that.

Download BBC Climate Change Experiment 1.0 in Softonic

This screensaver allows you to add an animated unreal scene to your desktop. Your display cracks and you see a whilrpool of the clouds shoot through the screen. Lightning flashes between the clouds and beautiful meteors with nice video effects complete the picture, making for an explosive look to your PC.

Download Whirlpool Screensaver 2.1 in Softonic

Turn your monitor into a realistic space shuttle window! Earth 3D Screensaver is a hard-nosed 3D globe model. Our planet looks exactly as it is seen by astronauts. You see the blackness of outer space with sparks of stars on it. You are flying around the Earth, a colorful ball with a veil of atmosphere. This is not like looking on a school globe. The view on the Earth from your monitor is so real. It's so easy to imagine...

Download Earth 3D Screensaver 1.0 in Softonic

The Stars 3 Screensaver 2.5 is an impressive and sophisticated replacement for the simple, 16-bit "Starfield" screensaver which comes with Windows. It is beautiful and entertaining. You will be able to configure it many ways to provide you many hours of enjoyment. As with other screen savers, when your computer is idle for some time, the Stars 3 Screensaver will show a simulation of the space flight.

Brightness of each star depends as on its own stellar characteristics as well as on distance from the view point. Flight rotation gives a dramatic, realistic & fantastic animation. The more futuristic view may be achieved with interstellar gas clouds simulation.

Download Stars 3 Screensaver 2.51 in Softonic

Have you ever dreamed of getting a chance to see the rings of Saturn, the distant Pluto, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Mars and of course the mother Earth from space? This screensaver is an outstanding 3D model of the solar system. Every planet is there along with its satellites and even a small info graph with basic facts. All the proportions and trajectories are right. You get to float through some of the best known constellations like the Big Dipper and get a great view of the Milky Way. It's not only the sheer beauty but also the educational content that make Solar System 3D Screensaver an absolute must-have.

Download Solar System 3D Screensaver 1.3 in Softonic

Fancy being transported into another world to escape your mundane routine? Free Space screensaver delivers 22 different cosmic pictures to your computer screen while you´re not working. The space images load with various original transitional effects to give your PC a stunnning look.

Download 7art Space ScreenSaver 1.5 in Softonic

Are you tired of looking at the same old screensaver day after day? Maelstrom is a particle-system screensaver for Windows that uses a fully realized three-dimensional graphics engine to evolve a wide variety of themes over time, producing innovative and original visual effects that are absolutely stunning.

The program includes 22 unique themes. When active, Maelstrom randomly cycles through all selected themes, smoothly transitioning between them, often with breathtaking results. Variety is built in, and the result is that you won't end up watching exactly the same things over and over.

Maelstrom also offers another innovative tool. Simply select a checkbox, and all themes will be rendered in red/blue anaglyphic 3D mode. When you wear a pair of 3D glasses (which are mailed to all registered users free of charge) the objects will literally leap off the screen.

Download Maelstrom 1.1 in Softonic

This unique 3D-accelerated screensaver features true photo-realistic and astronomically accurate 3D animation of the Earth viewed from Space. It features beautiful scenes of cosmic sunrises and sunsets, stunningly real-looking atmosphere effects, oceanic shines, and surface relief.

The unique and randomized camera flyby trajectory gives you the opportunity to see the planet from different perspectives. Each single frame of endless smooth animation is comparable with the best NASA photos, so this screensaver can be also used for educational purposes (just imagine how it looks on a screen projector in a dark room!)

Download Earth 3D Space Tour screensaver 1.1 in Softonic

This screensaver creates a satellite map of the world, showing the areas where the sun is currently shining. This allows you to literally watch the world go by whenever your computer is inactive or you go away from your desk.

Download EarthWatcher 1.1.1 in Softonic