Start Screen Saver With a Button

Normally, the screen saver starts after a period of inactivity, or when you use a Hot Corner. But you can also create a button in the Dock to start your screen saver with a click. This can be a handy way to quickly lock your Mac too.

Comments: 6 Responses to “Start Screen Saver With a Button”

    Mr. Luigi
    7 years ago

    That is so cool! How DO you come up with this stuff!? I'm a teacher, and on occasion need to leave my laptop "unsupervised" in class. This is the easiest and fastest way I have seen to secure my laptop in those situations. Thank you!

    Steve Parker
    7 years ago

    Thanks for this post. On my 2012 iMac running Sierra (10.12.6), however, I didn’t find the ScreenSaverEngine.app where you indicated. Instead I found it here: System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources. Is the location you provided possibly associated with High Sierra?

    Once I had the path to the ScreenSaverEngine.app, I used the Keyboard Maestro app to set a keyboard shortcut to start the screensaver. Works like a charm!

    7 years ago

    Steve: Could be. I only have High Sierra installed on all my Macs.

    Don Allen
    7 years ago

    outstanding. Thank you.

    B.A. Mann
    7 years ago

    Yep, in macOS 10.12.6 (Sierra) the location of screensaverengine.app is System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources. But the same instructions work great. Drag to the Dock and presto. Great tip.

    Carol
    7 years ago

    I will do it: I was using hot corners on my MacBook Pro but hot corners cannot work if the laptop is closed and connected to a larger external monitor.

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