The Marquee screen saver as it appears in Windows XP.
Marquee is a screen saver included with some versions of Microsoft Windows. It was first introduced in Windows 3.1 and comes with every subsequent version of Microsoft Windows up to Windows XP. The screen saver's file name is "ssmarque.scr".
Description[]
Marquee shows a line of text that scrolls across a colored screen, emerging from the right edge and moving left. When the text disappears, it reappears from the right edge, repeating the cycle.
Settings[]
By default, the text scrolls across the center of the screen only (Centered). It can be set to instead randomly alternate between scrolling across the top, center, and bottom portions of the screen (Random).
The speed at which the text scrolls can be set using a scrolling bar, ranging from slow to fast. The default setting is at the center of this bar.
The background color can be changed. The 20 available colors are: Black (default in Windows 3.1), Maroon, Green, Olive, Navy, Purple, Teal, light gray (unofficial name), beige (unofficial name), light steel blue (unofficial name), floral white (unofficial name), Gray, Silver, Red, Lime, Yellow, Blue (default in Windows XP), Fuchsia, Aqua, White.
The text shown in the screen saver can be changed. The default text in Windows XP is "Your text goes here.". There is a 254 character limit. Longer texts will scroll at the same speed given the same speed setting, but will take longer to fully pass through the left edge of the screen before reappearing from the right.
A sample showing how the screen saver will appear is on the bottom of the Marquee Setup. The screen saver's title bar has a Help button, which explains the function of each setting (aside from those inside the Format Text sub-menu).
Format Text[]
All other settings that alter the style of the text are found in a sub-menu accessed through the Format Text button.
The font of the text can be changed. The fonts available are dependent on what fonts are installed on the Windows operating system, with the default font being Tahoma.
The font style can be changed. The options available are: Regular, Bold, Italic/Oblique, Bold Italic/Bold Oblique. Additionally, Strikeout and Underline effects can each be applied to the text.
The color of the text can be changed. The 16 colors available are: Black, Maroon, Green, Olive, Navy, Purple, Teal, Gray, Silver, Red, Lime, Yellow, Blue, Fuchsia (default), Aqua, White. If the text color is the same color as the background, the text will be indistinguishable from the background.
The size of the text can be changed. The options available are: 8, 9 (default in Windows 3.1), 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 (default in Windows XP), 26, 28, 36, 48, 72.
The script used for the text can be changed. The options available are: Western, Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Turkish, Baltic, Central European, Cyrillic, Thai, Vietnamese.
Notes[]
- The default text of the Marquee screen saver is derived from a specific string taken directly from the Windows operating system itself. As a consequence of this, if the screen saver is imported to Windows Vista or later, it will use the version number of the system rather than its official name; "Windows NT 6.0", for instance.