Use a Website as a Screen Saver on Mac
Have you ever wanted to have a web site or web page used as a screen saver on Mac OS X? Well you can do exactly that with the help of a free screensaver called WebViewScreenSaver, which allows Mac users to add URLs to serve as the content of a screen saver whenever it’s activated on the Mac. This is handy for a variety of obvious reasons, and it’s quite easy to setup.
How to Set a Web Site as Screen Saver in Mac OS X
You can use any URL, site, or web page, and you can even reference a remote list of URLs if desired.
- Get the WebViewScreenSaver here
- Once it has finished downloading, right-click and choose “Open” to bypass Gatekeeper and install the screen saver (or install the screen saver manually)
- Open System Preferences and go to “Display & Screen Saver” settings, and under the Screen Saver tab locate and select the newly installed WebViewScreenSaver
- Choose “Screen Saver Options” and use “Add URL” button to add a website address to the screen saver, you can change the URL by selecting it from the address list then hitting the Return key, (go ahead and add https://osxdaily.com of course)
- Close the screen saver and enjoy your new website screen saver
You can use multiple sites if you want to cycle through them, or just a single web site if you want to view one particular web page in particular.
Once you activate the screen saver, the web page(s) chosen are embedded in webview in the screen saver, surrounded by a black border.
The screensaver works with any website but it’s perhaps most appropriate for the type of sites you visit often, whether thats the magnificent osxdaily.com, a news site, hobbiest forum, some fancy HTML5 animation, or something you create exclusively for the purpose of using as a screen saver.
Any way to be able to click a link when the screensaver/site is running?
How interesting – I can’t think this would do well for your mental health at this moment in time. Just imagine all the negative headlines of 2020 – COVID deaths on the increase, TRUMP, Explosions and so on. But it could work with the happy news portal. :)
No longer works on macOS 15 Catalina
This has been forked and updated for Catalina.
https://github.com/agologan/webviewscreensaver/releases/tag/v2.1.1
Not working for me, with OS X giving an error message about the developer not being certified with Apple.
I think the “Not certified with Apple” error relates to your Mac “Gatekeeper” settings: you can bypass as noted in the article by right-clicking “Open” on the downloaded file, by disabling Gatekeeper, or by using the single-download Gatekeeper bypass in System Preferences…
like it with https://cybermap.kaspersky.com
The liquidx webscreensaver was exactly what I wanted, which was to design my own screensaver with html, css and javascript. Love it. Tiny code. Runs smoothly. Easy to configure. Thank you, liquidx.
Only google.com can be added !
You can add any website URL to the screen saver, you have to select the URL and hit the Return key as described in the directions.
Thanks for this. Now I can view Facebook even when I’m not using my computer!
Perfect! Other than the fact that if you’re using this to play background music from YouTube – and do have two screens – you’re gonna hear the music twice.
Perfect for news thanks