A form of screen saver supported by Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4. Channel screen savers are Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) pages that can include such dynamic elements as Microsoft ActiveX controls; Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript); Java applets; and so on.
Channel screen savers are delivered to users through Web sites using Microsoft's Channel Definition Format (CDF). If multiple channel screen savers have been downloaded to the user’s desktop, the users system cycles through by default, displaying a new one every 30 seconds.
When a channel screen saver is being displayed, the user can still use the mouse to interact with objects on the screen without causing the screen saver to disappear. For example, if the channel screen saver contains a hyperlink, the user can click the hyperlink to open a new Web browser window, which causes the screen saver to disappear. If a user clicks on a section of the screen saver that is not a hyperlink, the screen saver closes, revealing the items on the users desktop.