How to Install New Screen Savers in Mac OS X

Adding a new screen saver to Mac OS X that you’ve obtained from a third party source isn’t as easy as it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly complicated. Though Gatekeeper has made things slightly more challenging to improve security, you’ll find that installing any screensaver to the Mac is still pretty simple.

You’ve probably noticed by now that in newer versions of MacOS, including MacOS Mojave, Sierra, OS X Maverick, El Capitan, Yosemite, and onward, adding new screen savers to your Mac is no longer a simple matter of double-clicking the file as it once was, if you try that you’ll see the following error message about the file not being trusted and from an unknown developer:

That’s easy to get around though. Accordingly, we’ll cover the two basic methods for installing screen savers in Mac OS X, one through the Screen Saver folder, and another using a right-click, and also for both screen saver file formats. That includes .qtz files, which are screen savers made from Quarts Composer, and the traditional .saver screensaver file format.

If you want to follow along with a third party screen saver, find one you like from our screen saver archive posts, or grab something like this nice FlipClock screen saver which we’ve covered before, it’s free, and happens to be what we’re using in this tutorial.

How to Add a Screen Saver to the Mac with a Right-Click

This is really easy but it only works with .saver files, if you try this with a .qtz screensaver file it will open in Quartz Composer or QuickTime instead. Thus, despite this being extremely simple, you’ll need to go for the other installation option when using Quartz files.

1. From the Finder, right-click the “Filename.saver” filename and choose “Open”



2. At the warning dialog ‘Filename.saver is from an unidentified enveloper. Are you sure you want to open it?’ choose “Open” (assuming you trust the file, if you don’t trust the file, don’t open it!)



3. This will automatically launch System Preferences into the Screen Saver section, now you can choose to install it for just the current user, or all users on the Mac – choose whichever is appropriate then click “Install” to complete



4. Select the newly added screen saver from the list to preview it or enable it as usual

Once it’s added and selected, you can then use something like a keystroke or hotkey to activate the new screen saver as usual.

Got a .qtz file as a screensaver instead? Use the folder trick instead:

How to Install a Screensaver Manually in Mac OS X by Dropping in Location of Screen Saver Folder

You can install any .saver screensaver file this way, and it’s also the best way to install a .qtz screen saver.

1. Quit System Preferences if it’s open
2. Navigate to ~/Library/Screen Savers/ directory in Mac OS X, to this yourself or by hitting Command+Shift+G and entering the full path and choosing to Go
3. Drag & drop the .saver or .qtz file into this folder



4. Open System Preferences from the  Apple menu and go to Desktop & Screen Savers to find the screensaver in the list

This uses the active USER folder and does not install the screensaver system-wide, to do that you simply need to remove the tilde ~ from the directory path and install into the system /Library/Screen Savers/ folder instead.

For some added details, the first trick basically just automates the process of adding the screensaver from the Finder manually through folders. Thus, if you choose to install in the User folder, the .saver file will end up in ~/Library/Screen Savers/, whereas if you choose to install the screen saver for all users, the location of the screen saver file will end up in /Library/Screen Savers/ instead.

For what it’s worth, if you want to get rid of that “is from an unidentified warning” completely, you can disable GateKeeper in the security preferences of MacOS and Mac OS X, but that is not recommended for the vast majority of users who should leave the feature on for security purposes.