Space traffic: rockets, UFOs and comets on your screen

Most space screensavers are calm and empty. Space traffic is the opposite: a busy sky full of things going somewhere. Rockets in six styles, shuttles, capsules, freighters, fighters flying in formation, satellites, UFOs, aliens, spacemen, asteroids, meteors, comets and random planets all pass through, drawn by the app's own code. Keep watching and you may even see a UFO beam up a cow.

It's in the night pack of Screensavers by Zaweba, so the background stays dark while the traffic supplies the movement and colour. It was once called Shuttle drift, and it still keeps that screensaver's id inside the app, so it is the same screensaver with a new name and a much busier sky.

Choosing what flies past

The what flies past setting has three choices. Everything is the full sky, cows and all. Everything but UFOs and aliens keeps the craft, planets and rocks but drops the science fiction, which suits an office or anyone who wants a slightly more serious look. Only rockets, spacecraft and satellites strips it back to the engineering, a good fit for someone who loves real spaceflight.

Children usually want everything. A classroom might prefer the middle option. A desk shared with clients might suit the last.

How busy, planets and the rest

How busy sets how much traffic is in the sky at once. Low is a sparse scene where each craft gets its moment. High is a crowded sky where something is always crossing.

Planets offers a few, one or none. A few planets give the scene depth and colour. One is tidier. None leaves only the traffic and the stars.

Meteors and comets can be turned on or off. They streak across quickly and add flashes of movement. Speed sets how fast everything travels. Tumble controls how much the craft and rocks spin as they go; more tumble feels more chaotic and playful, less feels smoother and more orderly.

A few combinations to try

For a lively children's screen, choose everything, a high how busy, a few planets, meteors and comets on and a good amount of tumble. For a calm office version, pick only rockets, spacecraft and satellites, a low how busy, one planet, meteors off and little tumble. For something in between, everything but UFOs and aliens with a middling setting for the rest makes a sky that is busy without feeling silly.

The live preview in the manager follows your changes straight away, so you can try each of these in a minute or two. Use Preview full screen to check the final look at real size; it closes as soon as you move the mouse or touch a key.

Launching it

Press Use this screensaver and it is built into your profile, without administrator rights, and Windows' Screen Saver Settings opens for the wait time and password option. Any change you make later in the manager is read the next time the screensaver starts.

On several monitors you can run a separate sky on each, one sky stretched across them all, or the main monitor only with the others black. Stretched is the most fun, because craft fly off one screen and onto the next.

Keeping it light

Space traffic has a lot going on, so it's worth knowing about the frame cap in Install and options. A cap of 30 frames per second keeps the processor work down while still looking smooth, and on a laptop the battery saver turns the screen black once the charge falls below the level you chose. If the scene ever feels too busy to sit next to, lowering how busy does more than lowering the speed.

It also pairs well with Deep space in Install several: a calm sky one time, a busy one the next.