Tip 119Use a Screensaver as a Desktop Background

This is a fun hack that lets you use the currently selected screensaver as a desktop backdrop in place of the regular wallpaper.

Setting Up

To give it a try, follow these steps:

  1. Open a Terminal window (open Finder, select the Applications list, and then in the list of applications double-click Terminal within the Utilities folder), and carefully type the following line of code, replacing XX with the name of the screensaver you noted earlier—if the screensaver name includes a space, type a backslash before the space (that is, Sliding Panels would be typed as Sliding\ Panels):

    ​ 
    nohup /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/
    ​ 
    ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine ...

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