SaverDesktop 1.1

Background

Some, but not all, people know that Mac OS X has the ability to run screen savers on the user’s desktop although it’s not a publicized or particularly supported behavior. It also has some quirks. I created SaverDesktop as an adjunct to a screen saver module I was working on to work around the following shortcomings of the stock tool:

1. 1.Launching the built-in mechanism by hand requires typing in a lengthy path pointing into /System, which is Apple’s playground (and thus subject to change).
   

2. 2.A double-clickable, universal AppleScript that invokes that tool (to avoid the typing) consumes more disk space than SaverDesktop.
   

3. 3.The built in screen saver engine has an inconvenient habit of quitting - even when running in background mode - if the user reconfigures the screen saver or moves their mouse to the “Disable” hot corner.
   

Usage

Put the SaverDesktop application anywhere you like and double-click it. If you’d like it to automatically run at login, you can use the Accounts page of System Preferences to set it up as a login item. If you’d like to stop the backgrounder, you can run the included StopSaverDesktop utility.

Support

Comments and suggestions can be set to support@splook.com.

License

SaverPreview is donationware and not disabled in any way. If you find it entertaining donations are happily accepted via PayPal (to gweston@mac.com) or paper mail:

Greg Weston

PO Box 54

Avon CT 06001

USA