Oh man it's time to revisit After Dark again.
For those who don't know, I'm a long time After Dark enthusiast, and I keep looking for ways to preserve this treasure from the past in modern OS. I already wrote 2 entries about installing AD4.0 on modern systems:
2017: AD4 in Win 7/10
When I check those guides again, some of the instructions went into obscurity -- not that the solutions do not work anymore, but the sites containing solutions were gone. Videos on YouTube became private, and the important bat file that replaces the After Dark control panel is no longer accessible.
It's time to update the guide with the assistance of LLMs.
Installation
1) Install with Windows 95 compatibility mode. Do not try with later compatibility like Windows XP sp2/3.
The reason is simple: AD4 is simply too old to even adapt the NT architecture. If you install using more recent compatibility mode several errors would occur: estimate memory needed is shown at zero, a few files couldn't be written...but there are more deeper problems like registry not properly edited and so on.
2) Move AfterDark.scr from SysWOW64 back to System32.
Same problem occurred when you leave it in SysWOW64.
3) Fix the path to screensaver at HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop.
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These are the known steps and has never changed since we are still in Windows 11. Two problems remained:
4) How to change the AfterDark screensaver settings?
In my previous guide I attached a YouTube video with a .bat file, but that video went private. Instead I found another video teaching you how to install AD4, with a bat file that looks very similar (with more functions), but I am not sure if this is the exact same author, so use it with caution. (And since this is somewhat accessible on YouTube I am not going to post that old .bat file directly.)
There is also an alternative: someone called rafaga12 made an after dark settings panel compatible with Win 10 and 11, probably worth a try as well.
5) Why is it so CPU demanding as a software 30 years ago?
I have asked a number of developers similar questions under different contexts, but I finally realized I might have asked the wrong person. I should ask OS engineers instead of software developers.
The reason is simple: how CPU works differently 30 years ago and now. Quoting what I got:
Back in the 1990s, multitasking was primitive. Many programs were written with "busy loops"—code that constantly asks the CPU, "Is it time to draw the next frame yet? How about now? Now?"
Then: On a 33MHz processor, that loop took up 100% of the CPU, but the CPU was already "on" and didn't have complex power-saving states.
Now: Modern CPUs are designed to "race to sleep." They want to finish a task in microseconds and then shut down parts of the chip to save power. A 30-year-old screensaver that constantly polls the CPU prevents the processor from entering its C-States (deep sleep modes). Because the CPU can't fully sleep, it stays warm, and the fans stay on.
This is likely the main reason -- the resources needed to render or fit compatibility is minimal when you are using a computer 30 years later. So the solution is also simple: we just need to throttle the program for most of the time. It would still run fine even when it was throttled 95% of the time or even more.
I tried the utility called Battle Encoder Shirase -- it worked so far and the fan went quiet when the screensaver turns on, but I need more time before the conclusion can be made.
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It's hard to imagine that we are already in the unwelcomed operating system Windows 11 for a few years. So much have happened in these 4 years, the resources shifted, and the appearance of language models greatly helped solving the problem. I'm even looking for more independent projects, like surviving old IDE into 64-bit compatible modern IDE.
Well I hope you would find this useful. If it becomes outdated again don't hesitate to notify me :)
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