OS X Yosemite: Screen Saver preferences

Screen Saver preferences

Use the Screen Saver pane of Desktop & Screen Saver preferences to make images appear on your screen when you aren’t using your Mac. You may want to do this to hide the items on your desktop while you’re away. To open this pane, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Desktop & Screen Saver, then click Screen Saver.

List of screen savers

Select a screen saver on the left, then do one of the following on the right:

  • Choose a folder from the Source pop-up menu to use for slideshow pictures. Click “Shuffle slide order” if you want the pictures to appear randomly.

  • Click Screen Saver Options to customize the screen saver.

The iTunes Artwork screen saver works only if your iTunes library contains artwork.

Start after

Choose a time from this pop-up menu to specify how long your Mac needs to be inactive before the screen saver starts. If you don’t want a screen saver to start at all, choose Never.

Show with clock

Display the time along with your screen saver.

Hot Corners

Start or stop your screen saver when the pointer is moved to a screen corner. Choose Start Screen Saver or Disable Screen Saver for the corner you want to set, then click OK.

To see more available keyboard shortcuts, hold down the Command (⌘), Shift (⇧), Option (⌥), or Control (^) key, or a combination of these keys, while viewing the pop-up menus.

Preview a screen saver in full screen

Hold the pointer over the preview on the right, then click Preview. Move the pointer to stop the preview and return to Screen Saver preferences.

Last Modified: Sep 23, 2015
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