Mac Basics: Change your screen saver
Summary
Learn how to change the screen saver. You can even use your own slideshow creation.
Products Affected
Change your screen saver in Mountain Lion
Mountain Lion contains several preinstalled screen savers
To change your screen saver:
- From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
- From the View menu, choose Desktop & Screen Saver.
- Click the Screen Saver tab to display the Screen Saver preferences. Screen Savers appear in the left pane. The right pane displays a preview of the selected screen saver.
- Select one of the Screen Savers in the left pane. To see a full-screen preview, hover your cursor over the right pane and click the "Preview" button.
To create a slideshow screen saver, do one of the following:
- In the Screen Saver preferences window, select one of the slideshow choices, such as Floating, Reflections, Origami, Shifting Tiles, and so forth. A small preview appears in the right pane. To see a full-screen preview, hover your cursor over the right pane and click the "Preview" button.
- Change the source for your slideshow if you wish. Mountain Lion comes with some default collections: National Geographic, Aerial, Cosmos, and Nature Patterns.
- If you have iPhoto installed (a part of iLife), you can choose a recent iPhoto Event or your photo library.
- You can also choose a folder of images on your computer to use for your slideshow.
Change your screen saver in OS X Lion or earlier
OS X Lion contains several preinstalled screen savers
To swap your current screen saver for another one:
- From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
- From the View menu, choose Desktop & Screen Saver.
- Click the Screen Saver tab to display the Screen Saver preferences. The installed screen savers appear in the left pane. The right pane displays a preview of the selected screen saver.
- Select one of the Screen Saver items in the left pane to use.
- Click Test to see what the screen saver looks like in use.
To create a slideshow screen saver, do one of the following:
- In the Screen Saver preferences window, select iPhoto to turn your iPhoto images into a slideshow screen saver.
- In the Screen Saver preferences window, click the Add (+) button below the Screen Savers list and navigate to and select a folder that contains images you want to use for your screen saver, then click Choose to add them to your screen saver list.
By selecting iPhoto, your Mac will automatically create a slideshow screen saver made from your iPhoto pictures
Additional Information
Here are some other things you can do in Screen Saver preferences:
- Click Screen Saver Options (or Options, in OS X Lion and earlier) to view the selected screen saver's user-configurable display settings and adjust them to your liking. These settings will vary screen saver to screen saver; some do not have options.
- Change the "Start after:" pop-up menu (or slide the "Start screen saver" slider left or right in Lion or earlier) to change the time, in minutes, at which the screen saver begins to play.
- If you'd like the ability to start the screen saver manually, click Hot Corners. In the resulting dialog, choose "Start Screen Saver" from any of the four corner pop-up menus and click "OK". The screen saver will start when you move your arrow to the chosen screen corner.
- If you just can't decide, click "Random" (or select "Use random screen saver" in Lion or earlier) and your Mac will randomly select a screen saver when it goes into screen saver mode.
Tip: If you want to have a password prompt appear when exiting the screen saver or waking your Mac, use Security & Privacy preferences.
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